Obama's Foreign Policy Follies and Back to the Minors, Rookie.

Maddy McCall

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Fri Mar-07-08 09:11 PM
Original message

Obama's Foreign Policy Follies and Back to the Minors, Rookie.

Edited on Fri Mar-07-08 09:12 PM by Maddy McCall

OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY FOLLIES

The American people are getting a chance to see how unprepared Barack Obama�s team of advisors are to help lead this country through the minefield of foreign policy problems that await the next President. Thank God Barack�s advisors are not allowed to carry firearms. They have spent the past week metaphorically shooting themselves in the feet and other delicate areas. Just imagine the damage they would do with real bullets.

We started with the Austan Goolsbee flap. You know, Barack�s senior economics advisor who told the Canadians essentially that Senator Obama�s public comments about NAFTA did not reflect his true feelings. Poor Austan did not understand that foreign governments take notes and file reports with their counterparts back home.

Not to be outdone, Susan Rice, a senior foreign policy advisor, jumps into the fray and essentially shoots Barack in the back when she admits that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton are qualified to answer a crisis phone call at 3am.

But wait, there is more. Samantha Power, another high powered foreign policy advisor personally selected by Obama, calls Hillary Clinton a monster and then pulls a Goolsbee�she tells the BBC that Barack�s stated plan to withdraw two battalions a month from Iraq is not firm and will depend on what the situation on the ground is in January of 2009. While that may be a sensible position it does not jive with Obama�s public position. And in a Presidential campaign a major task for any candidate is to persuade voters that he or she can be trusted. Well, this string of advisors saying their candidate does not mean what he says does not build the warm and fuzzy feeling among prospective voters.

But that�s not all. John Brennan joined the party. Think Progress has the story.

snip/

Brennan is not some �Johnny come lately� adviser. He�s an experienced hand. Brennan headed the National Counter Terrorism Center in his last job in the Bush Administration. It was under John Brennan�s watch that the Bush Administration issued false statistics on the number of terrorist attacks in 2004. He tried to cook the books and keep the public in the dark that terrorist attacks had soared to unprecedented levels. So if he is taking a position directly opposite of his candidate it has to mean he�s gotten the same wink and nod that Austan Goolsbee and Samantha Powers got from Senator Obama.

Now, everyone can make a mistake. But this is ridiculous. These people cannot be trusted to accurately represent their candidate�s public positions on key issues and Senator Obama wants the American people to trust his judgment in selecting folks to run the bureaucracies that he already admitted he can�t run? God save us.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/07/obamas_foreign_policy_follies/

OK, ROOKIE. BACK TO THE MINORS.

Forget Kool Aid, it looks to me like the Obamessiah�s disciples are drinking truth serum.

First, it was Obama economic guru Austan Goolesby spilling the beans on his guy�s noxious NAFTA two-facedness. Then it was Michele Obama telling us all how �downright mean� we all are and how she�s been through terrible privation and wants to be given something because she and her husband took up student loans to get through schools that most Americans will never see (even though the Obamas made, oh, about 1.7 million dollars just two years ago).

Now it�s one of his foreign policy honchos, Samantha Power, telling us what she really feels about Hillary Clinton.

snip/

Man, it�s fun watching them fly the campaign right into the side of a mountain. I have to say that, recently, Presidential campaigns have gotten bone-numbingly boring. The Anointed One is making them enjoyable again. It�s obvious to me that, to this point, he�s been floating along on pure personality, cult-like worship, and not a darned thing else. Now that he�s involved in the first real high-stakes election of his entire life, we�re seeing that he has not the foggiest idea what he�s doing. Remember, he�s never won a race for national office where he faced serious opposition. He�s now learning that this isn�t his friendly home-turf of Chicago. The sympathetic media folks he knew just a couple of weeks ago are starting to throw more curveballs and sliders and less changeups that look at big as beach balls when they come across his plate. This is the big-time and Barack is showing more and more every week that he�s not ready to face major-league pitching. Perhaps when he�s spent a few more years in the minors, he�ll be able to hit more than batting-practice fastballs tossed by charmed reporters, but not this season.

If he can�t run a national campaign with even minimal competency, he�s in no way fit to run the country.

http://poligazette.com/2008/03/07/okay-rookie-back-to-the-minors/