The courage of his convictions

[babylonsister]

The courage of his convictions
Posted July 27th, 2008 at 1:00 pm



It’s a study in contrasts*.

Two months ago in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush, coming to the end of a two-term presidency and presumably as expert on Israeli-Palestinian policy as he is ever going to be, was accompanied by a team of no fewer than five advisers and spokespeople during a 40-minute interview with this writer and three other Israeli journalists.

In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and I conducted with him, looked to Lieberman several times for reassurance on his answers and seemed a little flummoxed by a question relating to the nuances of settlement construction. (emphasis added)

On Wednesday evening, toward the end of his packed one-day visit here, Barack Obama, the Democratic senator who is leading the race for the White House and who lacks long years of foreign policy involvement, spoke to The Jerusalem Post with only a single aide in his King David Hotel room, and that aide’s sole contribution to the conversation was to suggest that the candidate and I switch seats so that our photographer would get better lighting for his pictures.

Indeed, the Jerusalem Post added that this may have been Obama’s second trip to Israel, but he “knew precisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues confronting and concerning Israel, and expressed himself clearly, even stridently on key subjects.”

He didn’t even need Lieberman there to help him struggle through the interview.

I’m curious. If you’d just arrived from another planet, and didn’t know a thing about either candidate, who would you say is the self-described expert on foreign policy and who would you say is relatively inexperienced on matters of international affairs?

more...

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16343.html#more-16343

JPost article here:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331099249&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[TwilightGardener]

1. K/R--I remain so impressed by Obama.

[babylonsister]

3. Ha!

Thanks for 'digging' this one up! Yes, he is impressive, and the rest of the world is connecting those dots.

[KAZ]

2. This was my most heartfelt REC of the day. Thanks Babylonsister!