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Audacity of Truth
Senator Obama: Foreign relations “experience” based on 4 years spent overseas when he was a child
(Illustration by Stanford Kay for Newsweek)
The claws are out and the fists are starting to fly between candidates Obama an Clinton, this time over another rookie mistake the Senator for Illinois made in trying to cite his overseas “experiences” as a 10 year-old as helping him both “understand” the world and shape his opinions on foreign policy (emphasis added):
SHENANDOAH, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Tuesday for his contention that living in a foreign country as a child helped give him a better understanding of the foreign policy challenges facing the U.S.
‘‘Voters will have to judge if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face,” Clinton said. ‘‘I think we need a president with more experience than that, someone the rest of the world knows, looks up to and has confidence in.”
Clinton’s statement was prompted by a comment Obama made a day earlier when asked about his foreign policy credentials. He said his life experience gave him a better feel for international issues than most candidates gain from official trips to other nations.
He noted his father was from Kenya and that he himself spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. ‘‘Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact I spent four years overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia,” he said Monday.
Here was Obama’s response to Hillary’s dig at his foreign policy “experience”:
“We just had a little exchange, Sen. Clinton and myself today” Obama told voters here. “I had mentioned that one of the reasons that I got it right when it came to Iraq was because I had lived overseas as a child. It gives me some judgment and perspective around what other people think about America and how they might react or respond when we make some of the decisions that we make.
“And, of course, both the Republicans in their talking points as well as Sen. Clinton said we don’t think that what Sen. Obama did when he was 10 years old is relevant to our national security. I didn’t say that. She went on to make up the point, that some of the Republicans have made that she’s met with all these world leaders. I was wondering which world leader told her that we needed to invade Iraq because that is the conventional thinking that we’re going to have to break.”
For that matter, I wonder which one of his childhood friends he met while overseas told him that Saddam Hussein wasn’t a threat and that we shouldn’t invade Iraq?
Doesn’t this give you SO much confidence in his ability to wade through the shark-infested sea of foreign policy issues that the US has to deal with on a daily basis? Why, I wonder if my ten days spent in Europe back when I was 18 qualifies me as an expert of sorts on diplomatic relations with Europeans? Hmmm …
Seriously, Obama really does make it too easy for the more politically seasoned Hillary to take swipes at his attempts at sounding tough and experienced, just like she did over remarks he made back in August about invading Pakistan. But are Democratic voters, who have cosistently put Hillary at the top of the polls for the last several months, starting to turn against Hillary’s experience versus Obama’s inexperience? A few recent polls suggest that the tide may be indeed turning against Clinton.
A recent Reuters/Zogby poll shows that Hillary’s support has dropped 10 percent, but Obama only gained a couple of percentage points (which may change once Oprah starts campaigning for him – heh). That’s still a comfortable margin for La Clinton, but she’s obviously not taking any chances and is coming out swinging full force against Obama.
More worrying for the Clinton campaign has to be the latest WaPo/ABC News poll, which now shows Senator Obama surging slighty ahead of Senator Clinton:
According to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama has surged to a 4 point lead over Hillary Clinton, and an 8 point lead over John Edwards.
In a survey of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, Obama draws support from 30 percent, compared with 26 percent for Clinton and 22 percent for former senator John Edwards. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson received 11 percent, The Washington Post reports.
Hillary is clearly in trouble in Iowa.
A CNN/WMUR poll suggests Hillary is losing support in New Hampshire, too:
The senator from New York saw a 23-point lead over her closest rival in September decrease to 14 points in a new CNN/WMUR New Hampshire presidential primary poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire.
When asked who they would support if the primary were held today, 36 percent of likely Democratic primary voters backed Clinton, 22 percent supported Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and 13 percent favored former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
In September, when CNN last polled in New Hampshire, Clinton was at 43 percent, with Obama at 20 percent and Edwards at 12 percent.
The survey, released Tuesday, showed a jump for Bill Richardson — 12 percent of those questioned supported the New Mexico governor for president, double his support from September.
It’s true that anything can happen in the next month or so before the primary season kicks into high gear, but I think these polls are significant considering how consistently Hillary has stayed ahead of the pack for most of this year versus the drop in support she’s seeing now. It may turn out that Obama’s rookie mistakes may actually help him rather than hurt him going into the primaries next year.
Either way, I’m sitting back and enjoying the back and forth sniping going on between the two, along with the little kitty cat hisses John Edwards throws in from time to time. With any luck, the three of them just may demolish each other.
Would someone pass the popcorn, please? 
——
Memeorandum has a link round-up of blogger reax on the battle going on between Hillary and Obama.
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14 Responses to “Senator Obama: Foreign relations “experience” based on 4 years spent overseas when he was a child”
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When Sen. Obama says he will sit down with Ahmed…jad without preconditions and will invade Waziristan with US troops without Pak permission, he is so off-base and naive that no amount of Jakarta playground experience can overcome his lack of experience.
I assume that Richard Holbrooke or perhaps Bill Richardson will be named Secretary of State. Sane hands at that helm might dissuade Obama from such walks on the mild side as the Iranian proposal.
However, his pronouncements on foreign policy demonstrate a deep lack of understanding of the nasty fact that the US has enemies who are not going to be sweet-talked by even such a charming fellow as B. Hussein Obama. Or Barry, as he used to call himself during his drug-daze in college. Come to think of it, wouldn’t that give him expertise in drug issues?
Remember the term gravitas? It was all the rage among the MSM pundits in 2000, but you haven’t heard at all this year.
The term was the left’s attempt to spin George W. Bush as too inexperienced to be president. Two successful terms as governor of the second-largest state in the nation meant nothing to them.
So let’s look at the three leading Democrat contenders.
One has just under seven years in the Senate, no executive experience, and is known principally for (1) bungling a health care package, (2) inability to answer even the most simple questions (unless they’re planted first, and (3) overheating the paper shredders at Rose Law and the White House. And that’s the putative front-runner.
One has less than one term in the Senate, dreams of invlading Pakistan but wants to give Iraq to AQ, and only a few years ago was nothing more than a Chicago ward heeler, although come to think of it, that probably gives him more executive experience than the front-runner.
The third only lasted one term in the Senate, thinks there are two Americas (apparently, one for unscrupulous trial lawyers and one for everyone else) and is tied up with outfits foreclosing on mortgages of the poor while positioning himself as a champion of the downtrodden.
If there was ever a time to question the “gravitas” of a group of candidates, this bunch qualifies.
So why haven’t we heard the word from the usual sources?
ST’s post just points up the MSM bias. If any GOP candidate had the temerity and poor judgement to claim that living overseas at age 10 was foreign policy experience, they’d be hauling out the “gravitas” club so fast and laughing themselves silly. And rightfully so.
In addition to their patriotism, I think it’s long past the time when we question whether any of this bunch has the experience to run a lemonade stand, much less the country.
Great point, GWR – I had forgotten about how the press treated GWB’s alleged “inexperience” back in 2000.
Well, GWR, the MSM isn’t exactly making much of the fact that Hillary’s most extensive experience is as First Lady (and she has the silverware, towels, and furniture to prove it).
She probably has lots of time under her belt making small talk to Yassar Arafat over coffee.
Amazing that any of this crowd is considered serious presidential material, isn’t it? Not a one of them has distinguished him/herself as any kind of statesman. Hacks, one and all….
So what hapens if Hillary plays the Gender card and Obama plays the Race card?
Do they cancel each other out?
So the Post has ‘em pretty much even in Iowa. C’est interessant. If this holds, I imagine the only thing Iowa will do is allow us at long last to say good bye to Biden, Dodd, Richardson, and the ETs.
Unless, of course, Richardson, say, does better than expected, and the mediots decide to make him the big story as they move on to New Hampshire.
As for Obama’s childhood experiences, for some reason this reminds me of the Yankees’ search for a new manager, after George Steinbrenner’s sons, who have taken over the team because the Boss, 77, is too ill to continue, made an offer to Joe Torre that he turned down. The candidates were former Yankee hero and Torre’s bench coach, Don Mattingly, who had never managed before, and Joe Girardi, who had managed the Marlins and was named NL manager of the year, but couldn’t get along with the Marlins’ owner and was fired.
Mattingly, when asked by reporters about is lack of managerial experience, said he’d managed lots of games “in his head.”
Girardi got the job. Mattingly is now in LA with Torre. As a bench coach, where he’ll get to manage more games in his head.
Hillary isn’t even leading here in Iowa anymore. Her goon squads are roaming the streets looking to strong arm people into voting for her in the caucuses.
Democrat caucuses are interesting here because they don’t use a secret ballot. People do try to bribe or intimidate people openly to change their votes and allegiance during the precinct caucuses. Some do it with their fists.
Is it too late for me to get in the race? I’ve got three times his overseas experience and started a business there in the process, w/o the slightest ability to even read, right or speak the native language. Shoot, when it comes to being qualified, having a viable skill should be some kind of advantage, no?
But I did stay at a Holiday Express inn once……
So, how does being married to a lying, incompetent former president who’s foreign policy was based on his approval rating rather than the good of the nation make Hillary qualified?
What are Hillary Diane Rodham Milhous Clinton’s foreign policy credentials?
I’ve met with countless (I read clueless world leaders) world leaders? Apparently math too is not her strong suit. Either that or in keeping with BJ traditions, there have been additional terminology redefinitions at the behest of the unelectable Clintoon.
Hillary’s “I’ve met with countless world leaders” jive sounds suspiciously like Mr Kerry’s assertions in 2004!
Next thing on her and the other kooky cutters Socialist Lib American-born Progressives menu will sound something like: *We need to get back to being the country we once were*. That should prove to be interesting, since they’ve never been there. The SLAP party of endless circles will provide undeniable lies, proving that spiraling is a direction. Given that round is also a shape, a tough sell but, so much for being fit for any job where they are left unattended.