Wouldn't it be great... (Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog): I thought Obama's response was fine in its rhetorical aspirations and hardly "revealing" him as inexperienced: he won't be afraid to talk to anyone because America shouldn't be afraid to be compared--side by side in terms of what it stands for--with any leader.
Yes, I know that's a scary prospect right now but we're talking about the next one.
So Obama won't be trapped by the image-consciousness of the Boomers or the step-by-step incompetency of the State Department--big deal.
The only people afraid to talk are those with things to hide. I prefer not to play that way, especially in this transparent world.
I've also had enough of not talking as a grand strategy, with opinions of the U.S. plummeting planet-wide.
And as for being "used" for propaganda purposes, that's weak. Obama meets Castro: who's gonna look weak in that photo-op? Obama goes to Venezeula, what kind popular reception do you think he'd get? Who wouldn't want to deliver the "tear down that whatever" line in Tehran to all those pissed-off college students?
When did we become so scared? So conservative? So un-self-confident?
I mean, wouldn't it be great to have a president the world respects again? Somebody not afraid to lead instead of being always so staged by his team? Or watching poll numbers? Or afraid of his own military?
Naive? Breath of fresh air.
Turn the page, baby!...
I have to set the record straight here since some people totally misunderstood the question.
Please go back to the question and the example cited of Sadat going to Israel. Read Sadat’s trip of 1977 and also see what preparations were made prior to the trip.
Low-level diplomacy was not issue here; some diplomatic works were already done before Sadat made his bold move.
The question was; after all the low and high level diplomatic negotiation were completed by the underlines at State Department, would the future President by willing to meet any of our enemies without a pre-condition as Sadat did, when he visited Israel?
Obama’s answer was exactly in line with the question.
It looked like Hillary didn’t even know about Sadat’s move and the role played by President Jimmy in the low and high level diplomacy to prepare for Sadat’s move.
Obama was willing to meet with any of our enemies once the groundwork was done like Sadat did.
This was not a question of preliminary diplomatic negotiations; that would have been taken care of as it was in the Sadat case, it was about our future president's willingness to do as Sadat, Reagan, Nixon, and Kennedy did.
So far Obama is the only candidate willing to show that kind of bold leadership exemplified by Reagan, Kennedy, and Sadat.
If Hillary couldn’t understand that the question assumed that high and low-level diplomacy have been done, then we can’t really be able to help her.
No wonder she voted to authorized the war and thought that she was sending Bush to the UN. Too bad - We want sharp minds in 2008, not people that could not understand a simple question like or issue like Sadat’s trip to Israel on November 19, 1977. Sadat was the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem
Some people are shouting about Hillary’s experience and this is one prime example that her type of experience is useless to the nation at this time.
Yes. We cannot just ignore the experience question; the truth is that Hillary is running on experience and so far she has not proven that to the American public.
Hillary told us that she is running on experience so we must call her out on her ignorance of basic procedures like this.
No wonder she thought that voting to authorize the war was not actually giving Bush the power to invade, but rather the power to go to the United Nations.
Hillary does not understand that no bilateral presidential meeting/summit has ever taken place without a low and high level diplomatic groundwork. That failure to understand a simple foriegn policy issue as a presidential summit makes her unqualified to be our commander-in-chief in 2009.
She might one day give out Confidential National Security information and thought that it was just a weather tip.
Posted by: F.Igwealor | July 25, 2007 at 12:21 PM