When "stay-at-home" Obama came under fire for LACK of foreign EXPERIENCE

Times Online ^ | December 21, 2007 | Tom Baldwin

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Yesterday they underlined this message by pointing to reports showing that Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman. There was also strikingly robust criticism from an independent Washington think-tank about a “disconcerting void” over transatlantic relations in Mr Obama’s foreign policy, as well as from a former British Minister for Europe.

Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad. “The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I have a better sense of how they’re thinking and what their society is really like,” Mr Obama said last month.

The spokesman said that Mr Obama had held European subcommittee hearings on the nomination of two US ambassadors in the past year when he had been busy with his presidential campaign.

But Steve Clemons, the director of foreign policy at the New American Foundation in Washington, said that such hearings were not the same as convening full meetings on pressing policy issues such as the future of Nato. “Someone who is seeking the presidency should have some facility for the most important anchor in global affairs, which is the transatlantic relationship,” he said. “The major threats in the 21st century are changing but what is not changing is the vital necessity of Europe and the US collaborating in meeting those challenges with Europe, for instance, in the lead on dealing with Iran. This is a very disconcerting void in Obama’s profile.”

[CondoleezzaProtege]

I post this because I am tired of all the doubts people have over Palin's "inexperience" --HELLO! LOOK WHO OUR COUNTRY ELECTED! Palin is not merely qualified because of her right principles, she is qualified on the merits of her record, accomplishments, and experience-something our current leader LACKED in a major way.

[Jeff Chandler]

Hey, Europe! You wanted change, well you got it!

[o-n-money]

I’m President....I don’t need no stinkin job.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

sorry just to clarify: the article was from over a year ago as Obama was hitting the campaign trail...

*sigh* look where all our “hOpe” has gotten us.

[tina07]

““The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I have a better sense of how they’re thinking and what their society is really like,” Mr Obama said last month.”

What freakin’ poppycock, for lack of a worse way to put it!

[MissDairyGoodnessVT]

isn’t that statement just the hells bells? of all the pompous , bassackwards,self-inflating statements one could make of oneself, this guy is a kindergartner! this ego knows no bounds! as if “they” and how “they” think are a mystery!
oh my achin’ lord...............

[AliVeritas]

You also have to remember, when he chaired the sub-committee it involved NATO as well, we were having hell in Afghanistan (and even back then they needed troops and NATO to get folks who would actually ‘fight’), the supply lines and trucks were getting bombed like clockwork.

For him to sit there and act like he doesn’t know what to do in Afghanistan is clearly taqiyya. Even if he didn’t chair his comm., Bush had him in his socks (when most of us screamed, ‘Hey, that guy doesn’t have TO Clear yet), going to all the security meetings way ahead of him getting in office.

Even in Illinois, he had a habit of vacationing when some important issue or vote came up, usually one he mouthpieced on that someone else did the work for. He’d come after and rush the podium as Emil threw others bills at him (remember, many said he was never around on issues for meetings, same in senate, he was running as soon as he got in).

It’s sickening that till this day the demi-reds of the left are in denial and too proud to admit they were swept up... and never bothered to check.

[syriacus]

We need an amendment that states that a candidate for the US presidency shall not have spent more than 2 formative years overseas, UNLESS the candidate was there at the same time a parent/guardian was sent/posted overseas by the US government.

[freekitty]

I am still trying to figure out when he stayed home.

[Venturer]

Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad

---

Now that is a tractor-trailer load of Bulls-— dumped on the truth.

[Ben Ficklin]

For those that classify and categorize, Obama's foreign policy doctrine is considered Realist-Interventionist.

He campaigned on the realist doctrine and many republican realists endorsed his campaign pledges and many of these republican realists have been close advisers to Obama. Numero Uno of these is Bob Gates but Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft are also very influential.

Obama also hired about 12 liberal interventionists from the think tank Center for a New American Secutity(CNAS) and all of them are in policy positions. Numero Uno of these is Michele Flournoy who was prez of CNAS and is now Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Also influential is Richard Holbrooke who is Obama's AfPak Envoy.

[Feckless]

“The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I have a better sense of how they’re thinking and what their society is really like,” Mr Obama said last month.

And they have the nerve to rag on Sarah for her "I can see Russia" comment?

[LaineyDee]

Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad.

Just because I have a kitchen in my house....and played with an EasyBake Oven as a child... I can now declare myself a chef, right? These people are delusional....

[Yorlik803]

How old was he when he traveled overseas, something like 10.
I visited NASA when I was 13, That should make me an astronaut.

[SteamShovel]

I am still trying to figure out when he stayed home.

Where IS his home?.....

.....Hawaii?

.....Indonesia?

.....Chicago?

...???

What does he consider to be his real "home?"

It seems to me that Obama is the classic scatterbrained arrogant know-it-all offspring of an insecure scatterbrained commie lib arrogant know-it-all mother, enhanced by the broken family experience and the influence of a commie lib grandfather father-figure.

[freekitty]

Who knows; but the WH sure isn’t.

[SunkenCiv]

reports showing that Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman

"Europe is filled with imperialist, colonialist, white racists."

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

Even the dimmest of Democrats should have run the other way from a ridiculous statement. If travel abroad were the prerequisite, then the American over the age of 35 who had travelled the most should be declared president. Maybe the state dept needs to starts tracking this and giving out frequest flier credits and every four years declare whoever is the top winner the President. We wouldn’t need the big money campaigns - hell what one would spend on continuous non-stop travel would pale in comparison to the cost of a campaign... We could are doing a lot worse in our method for choosing president with the present system.