Who's Got the Foreign Policy Experience We Need?

It's getting wild out there.

Bill Clinton told voters in Muscatine, Iowa, yesterday that he had "opposed Iraq from the beginning." Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton claimed she was the "face" of US foreign policy throughout the 1990s. Then, Hillary Clinton said Barack Obama would be the least experienced president we've had since World War II.

Huh?

With respect to the first two statements, the historical record speaks for itself. The latter charge does not hold up to scrutiny. When it comes to foreign policy, several post-war presidents, who were governors not Senators, had less experience upon taking office than will Barack Obama. They include the one who must have misspoken yesterday, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and, of course, George W. Bush.

Precisely what foreign policy experience would Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bring to the Presidency?

The osomotic insights Senator Clinton gained from her time in the White House and her travels abroad can only be beneficial, but they are far from sufficient to qualify one for the Presidency, as surely Betty Ford, Rosalyn Carter, Barbara Bush, and perhaps even Laura Bush would concede. More important is the expertise Clinton has gained in her own right, as a Senator, especially through her service on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Still, that experience did not lead her to the same judgment as Senators Byrd, Kennedy, Levin (then Chairman of the Armed Services committee, or Bob Graham (then Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) to oppose the Iraq war -- the greatest strategic blunder in a generation - or to vote this Fall against the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which greased the skids for war with Iran.

Similarly, Barack Obama's service in the Senate, and notably his three years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including as Chairman of the European Affairs Subcommittee, afford him deep insight into national security issues. Working with Sen. Richard Lugar, Obama passed new measures to halt the proliferation of nuclear materials. Having opposed the Iraq war from the start, Obama was the first major candidate to propose a responsible and comprehensive plan to redeploy our forces safely and press Iraqis to achieve the necessary political progress. His Iraq War De-escalation Act introduced in January 2007 was embraced by the Democratic leadership in the Senate and remains their primary legislative vehicle for ending the war. Obama was also the first Senator to introduce legislation to address the risks posed by over-reliance on unaccountable military contractors, like Blackwater.

Obama has stood up against the march to war with Iran. Instead, he is committed to direct diplomacy, without preconditions, and to increasing pressure on Iran, including through his legislation that would allow states to divest their holdings in companies that do business with Iran. Obama has also led Senate efforts to improve U.S. preparedness for an avian flu pandemic, to halt the genocide in Darfur, increase resources to roll-back HIV/AIDS and to bring stability and peace to war-torn Congo.

But for both Clinton and Obama, it's not only service in the U.S. Senate that matters. It is their other professional and life experience as well.

Senator Clinton spent her formative years in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois, and went on to Wellesley College and Yale Law School. Senator Obama, born of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother, spent his childhood in Jakarta and Hawaii before graduating from Columbia with a degree in International Relations and Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Law Review.

Prior to becoming First Lady, Senator Clinton was a tireless and passionate advocate for children and an accomplished lawyer in public service and private practice. Senator Obama worked as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side. After law school, he shunned a lucrative legal career to practice at a small civil rights law firm and teach constitutional law. He served eight years in the Illinois State Senate where he consistently built bipartisan coalitions to tackle divisive issues such as tax policy and police interrogation techniques.

While their academic and professional paths are not dissimilar, Obama's youth in Indonesia, which Senator Clinton derides, is something very different from Park Ridge.

Those years in Jakarta gave Obama a rare appreciation of the complex and painful post- colonial challenges of South East Asia's giant and the world's largest Muslim country. It afforded him crucial insight into the ways that others see America - ways that too often differ from how we see ourselves. It enabled him to witness first-hand the effects of poverty, political repression, corruption and civil strife - among the most pressing issues of our day. In later years, Obama came to know his Kenyan family, including his grandmother who still lives in a hut on the shores of Lake Victoria. These are no ordinary life experiences for an American president, few of whom have ever lived in the developing world.

Unlike any other candidate for President, Obama is a man of the world and the man for our times. He uniquely embodies the multiple strands of America's heritage. He exemplifies our nation's ability to overcome its tortured history of racial polarization and discrimination. His very election would speak volumes to the world about America's ability to change and grow and learn from past mistakes. At a time when the world is wondering if America even gets that it makes mistakes, Barack Obama personifies the promise of what America can still be.

And belief in that promise is precisely what we need to re-enlist international support to confront unprecedented global security challenges, ranging from terrorism to climate change, pandemic disease to nuclear proliferation. We need a leader who recognizes that we cannot go "back to the future" but we must build a new future born of ambitious vision and of hope not fear.

We need a unifier who will win with a mandate for meaningful change. At this pivotal moment in our history, we need a President with unique life experience, judgment and sensitivity to the rest of the world's aspirations and frustrations. Now is the time for that President who can renew trust in America's ability to lead not only for ourselves but also for the common good.

Comments

[teenet]

I think the person we are looking for is not running yet. I thinl Al Gore blows all the others away on all the issues facing our country. We need a true statesman like him now more than ever! This country has so much repairing to do it will be generations before the damage is healed all for the because the soiled rich kid got to play howdy doody gun slinger for 8 years.

[StephenCassidy]

You have ignored the candidate who stands head and shoulders above all others on foreign affairs: Governor Bill Richardson.

He is the product of two nations, Mexico and the United States. His childhood friends included many of the poor in the neighborhood where his family lived in Mexico City. He has seen first hand the devastating impact of poverty on families and children. His bi-national upbringing necessitated understanding and then bridging two cultures. This laid the foundation for Governor Richardson as an adult to become a peacemaker among nations and an expert in the art of diplomacy.

With Richardson we get two for the price of one: a can-do leader on domestic issues and a seasoned world diplomat. Richardson will heal America and restore our place in the world.

With Obama it is all guess work. You are advocating we put the future of our nation in the hands of a question mark.

[Titus]

Biden is the one with the most Foreign Policy experience. Go Joe...

[LeeFromVA]

Well said Susan! Barack Obama will be the new face of foreign policy, and the world will love him much the same way the American people will. Hillary's negative numbers are high and they wouldn't be much better around the world, especially with her hawkish position. It's time for a change, not Bush-Lite.

[Dansden]

How about this:

EDWARDS- Pres

RICHARDSON or OBAMA- VP

Wesley Clark- Sec. of State

Dodd- Depart of Defense

Kucinich- Depart of Health/Welfare

Biden- U.N. Ambassador

[cacatua]

It is incomprehensible that anyone could mention Foreign Policy without mentioning Joe Biden in the same sentence! It would only happen because the person talking, or in this case writing, is pushing someone else for the nominee. The "top three", or is it "two" now don't even talk about foreign affairs without refering to and agreeing with what Joe said in the debates! He actually gets on airplanes and goes to world hot spots, and talks to the people involved. He confronted Slobodan Milosevic face to face about the genocide in Bosnia and worked for two years to get Bill Clinton to intervene and stop the slaughter over there! He just told Bush that his peace conference between Israelis and Palestinians was a good start, but what really matters is what you do the day after, and the day after that, and so on. Joe said if he were president he would be on a plane and go over there to get involved and keep things moving himself.

Don't be trying to sell me anyone less for president than Joe Biden! He is far and away superior in every way to anyone else in this race!

[denlong]

you want EXPERIENCE?

Try Dick Cheney and Don Rummy ...

oh wait .....

[Truthortradition]

Perception is everything in politics. Too bad Democrats can't understand that fact.
No matter how great Obama is, the fact remains that the majority of folks see him as someone who cannot be trusted. He doesn't put his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance. His Islamic heritage is not refutable. It doesn't matter that he voted against the war. It doesn't matter that he's a scholar. None of that is relevant, sadly.
I like Obama and think that after another decade or so, America might actually embrace him as President. Right now, he's too unknown. Right now, the perception is that by nominating Obama, the Democrats are going to hand this country over to Islamic terrorist. Do Democrats actually talk to people, or am I the only one that hears all of this.
And, no, it doesn't matter how many times Oprah tells the general public that obama is not Osama, there is no way to change the overall perception. Hence, Republican oil barons win again. And they have further ensured their victory by convincing folks that Hillary is a clone of Bush. Unbelievable feat. Too bad Democrats are fueling the next Republican victory by bashing Hillary as well.
Right now, it seems we are doomed.

[ripley8]

Obama spent the age of 6 to 10 in Jakarta .
not ages one is known for retaining anything other than through the eyes of a child.
I'd like to see exactly what he remembers and how that could be of service now. I bet it couldn't fill a thimble. Especially when you concider not only his age but era he was there.
this is pretty insightful. http://www.thejakartapost.com/weekender/6reporter.asp
When did Barry Soetoro become Barack Obama ( Barack Hussein Obama, Jr) or vice versa ? Where Clinton is chaffed for her upbringing in a affluent home , Obama is charecturized as coming from a different/poor backround when he didn't.
As a Democrat I found some of this interesting -
Will the real Barack (Barry) Hussein Obama (Soetoro) please stand up
http://republicaninthearts.blogspot.com/2007/04/will-real-barack-hussein-obama-please.html

[PhilosopheForum]

I suggest the American voters start giving Gov. Bill Richardson serious consideration. He is, by far, the most qualified & experienced candidate of anyone. Do the research. His website has most of the answers. Ask him questions.

Bill Richardson is genuine. He doesn't come across as a political hack, tailor his responses to polling data, or give anyone the impression he's a superficial celebrity.

Bill Richardson: the REAL New Deal President for the 21st Century!!

[lepere]

W's foreign policy exposure prior to the presidency was limited to trips to Mexico for hookers and dope. However his advisors had stunning resumes. Think Cheney, Rummy, Rice etc. We see how that worked out. Lincoln, on the other hand, with only a raft trip to New Orleans under his belt, managed to keep the European interests out of the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. No mean feat.
What the presidency requires is intelligence and an idea that the government is of the people, by the people and for the people, not political supporters, oil barons and insurance companies. Foreign policy flows out of that.

[oilpatchdems]

Thanks for a great post. Between Obama and Edwards, I'm stating to lean toward Obama.

[PuffAndStuff]

Unfortunately for the Clintons their previous support of the Buscho/Neocon agenda -- Hillary senate votes and Bill's public statements -- has caused serious doubts and concerns with voters regarding them and foreign policy. I'd bet that had they both not been defenders of the Bushie ways and if they had not been players (via statements and votes) in the fooling and confusing most of the public into believing it was necessary to invade Iraq/Saddam Hussein, then HRC could/would probably have this election in the bag -- even if it based on the mere fact that the public would feel comfort in the idea of having Bill would be back in office.

Now, though, for many people whatever they did or didn't do regarding foreign policies in the '90's has been erased or overshadowed by what they did or didn’t do in the more recent history.

In regard to selecting a candidate for nomination: it seems to come down to selecting someone who touts their years of foreign affairs experience (albeit, vicariously through her husban's years in office), but then demonstrated they're, in fact, a very poor decision-maker and won't mislead the public on these issues by being a Bushco cheerleader -- VS. -- someone who cannot tout a decade of this experience (as their spouse is not a former president), but who has demonstrated they'd be a much better decision-maker and won't mislead the public by publicly denouncing this war when it was still very unpopular to speak this way.

Seems a real reversal in fortunes, perhaps.

[checkmoot]

In the TV age political races have become, partly, beauty contests. It is just a shame that the best qualifed person, by far, Bill Richardson, has no chance. Not tall, not handsome, no movie star charisma, just a world of experience and probably the most intelligent candidate in the race.

[DANIELLECLARKE]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opening Statement of Senator Barack Obama Foreign Relations Committee regarding Lugar-Obama legislation S.1949.
http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060209-opening_stateme/

Thursday, February 9, 2006
Printable FormatMr. Chairman, I can't do a better job of laying out the issue than you just did, so I am going to keep my opening remarks relatively short.

I want to thank you for your tireless leadership on this issue; for holding this hearing; and for working with me to introduce what I believe is a very good bill. I also want to thank Senator Biden for his insightful comments and his long track record of good work on nonproliferation issues.

The Lugar-Obama legislation, S.1949, = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s.1949:
does two basic things.

First, it enhances our ability, working with friends and allies, to detect and intercept illegal shipments of weapons and materials of mass destruction. Second, the bill bolsters ongoing efforts to destroy conventional weapons such as lightweight anti-aircraft missiles.

As the Chairman pointed out in his opening statement, many of these efforts are under-funded, fragmented, and in need of high-level support. I take note of the Chairman's comments that new threat reduction proposals - even the Nunn-Lugar program - are not always warmly received by the Executive Branch.

I agree with your testimony Secretary Joseph that the Department does need flexibility to deal effectively with global threats and international diplomacy. But that isn't the issue here before us today. Every Member of this Committee wants to give the State Department the flexibility it needs.
ETC
ETC
Secretary Joseph, despite my concerns, I am hopeful that we can work together to make adjustments to our budget priorities. With regard to Lugar-Obama, I am also confident that we can work in a collaborative spirit to make a good bill even better. I look forward to your testimony.

.......................................................
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s.1949:

Lugar Obama bill