Yesterday, the president, with not-so-subtle language, suggested to the Israeli Knesset that Barack Democrats are Chamberlain-like appeasers because Obama is willing to talk to Iran (just as Bush’s own Defense Secretary and Secretary of State have recommended). As it turns out, Obama had taken the day off from the campaign trail, but the entire party had his back, and quickly and aggressively pushed back against Bush — and against John McCain for applauding Bush’s smear.
But that was yesterday. Today, Obama campaigned in South Dakota, and demonstrated that he’s not going to give an inch of ground to Bush, McCain, or the GOP on foreign policy, statecraft, national security, and military matters.
“They’re trying to fool you. They’re trying to scare you. And they’re not telling you the truth [because] they can’t win a foreign policy debate on the merits,” Obama said. He went on to call the Bush/McCain approach “naive and irresponsible.”
This is what campaigns are all about. Forget pins and preachers — the president and his would-be Republican successor have a specific, misguided worldview about America’s role in the world, and how we can use our international influence to the world’s benefit. That is to say, a failed worldview, which Republicans are anxious to pursue for another four years, starting in 2009. To get there, Bush, McCain, and their cohorts are returning to the cheap and predictable talking points that have gotten them this far — those who reject their ideas are “weak,” “naive,” and putting the nation at risk.
Which is why it’s so encouraging to hear Obama step up and say, “Not this time.”
A year ago, it seemed to me that Obama, when pressed on foreign policy, sounded hesitant and unsure of himself. He said all the right things, but with a certain timidity and uncertainty.
Watching Obama this afternoon, that apprehension is gone, replaced with the confidence of a candidate who knows he’s right, and anxious to prove it to the electorate. He wasn’t enraged this morning by Republican cheap shots; he was practically amused that Bush and McCain could be so foolish and irresponsible.
From a political perspective, as Greg Sargent explained well, this is the ground on which Obama wants to fight.
The fight is one that the Obama campaign is eager to have, because it accomplishes two things. First, it forces McCain to stand by Bush, making it easier to tie them together. And second, it puts Obama, sans Hillary, on the same stage as the current Republican president and his would-be successor, making the Dem primary seem a bit like a distant memory.
“If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate I am happy to have any time,” Obama said. “That is a debate that I will win.”
He proceeded to rattle off all the things Bush and McCain have to “answer for.” The unnecessary Iraq War. The phantom WMDs. The strengthening of Iran. The fact that “Hamas now controls Gaza.” And the fact that Osama Bin Laden is “sending out video tapes with impunity.”
And from a policy perspective, as Ben Smith’s post noted, Obama has no shortage of policy specifics on which to press McCain.
“They’ll have to explain why Hamas now controls Gaza — Hamas that was strengthened because the us insisted that we have democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
McCain “still hasn’t spelled out one substantial way that he’d be different from GB when it comes to foreign policy,” Obama said, accusing both of “dishonest, divisive attacks.”
He also mocked McCain’s opposition to talking to Hamas in light of an interview McCain gave two years ago in which he appeared to support talking to Hamas.
You know, after months of malaise, I’m actually starting to enjoy this campaign again.
