Cast of 300 advises Obama on foreign policy

International Herald Tribune ^ | 7/17/08 | Elizabeth Bumiller

[pissant]

WASHINGTON: Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Obama supported the decision by Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Obama with bullet points, was yes — or "a genuine opportunity," as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

"It is unwieldy, no question," said Denis McDonough, 38, Obama's top foreign policy aide, speaking of an infrastructure that has been divided into 20 teams based on regions and issues, and that has recently absorbed, with some tensions, the top foreign policy advisers from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "But an administration is unwieldy, too. We also know that it's messier when you don't get as much information as you can."

[pissant]

Simply pathetic.

[Miss Didi]

This is leading in red on Drudge right now. I cracked up over this:

"Unlike George W. Bush, who entered the presidential race in 2000 with scant exposure to national security issues, Obama has served since his election to the Senate in 2004 on the Foreign Relations Committee and has had a running tutorial from aides steeped in the issues. His campaign says that he is well prepared and that he often alters and expands on the talking points provided to him by his foreign policy advisers."

[Oztrich Boy]

Cast of 300 advises Obama on foreign policy

He's getting good advice on how to deal with Persians

Spartan Women Rock!

[petitfour]

That is funny!

ROFLOL

[icwhatudo]

Ok, be honest, how many people thought this thread was about hollywood actors supporting obama-LOL

[new cruelty]

i saw the headline on drudge and that is the first thing i thought! lol.

[Clemenza]

Wasn’t they guy who plays Jimmy McNulty on “The Wire” also in “300?” There we have Barry O’s advisor on the crime issue...

[petitfour]

I didn’t think it was about actors, but it would be funny to put together a cast of such. There are so many actors/actresses with important opinions about foreign and domestic affairs. (and I don’t mean the Hollywood kind of affairs) Maybe Obambi could hold tryouts.

[musicman]

"Simply pathetic."

[rabidralph]

I, did.

[jveritas]

Obama can have millions of the so called foreign policy experts advising him but he will always remain a defeatist and weak man who cannot make strong leadership decisions to crush our enemies.

[Old Sarge]

[raygun]

Do you know the moment of inertial rotation of the ZR1 ebngin or are you just faking?

[Jim Noble]

Denis McDonough, 38, Obama's top foreign policy aide

It's going to be important to get as much background on this cast of characters as we can.

Denis McDonough

[Salvation]

300????

LOL!

[Sacajaweau]

Foreign Policy (among other things) is Obama's weakness.

In the meantime, the workers...that would be you and me LEGAL AMERICANS...are being dealt a setback with the DEMS oil policy crap.

BUSH DID THE RIGHT THING. CONGRESS COULD HAVE LIFTED THEIR BAN ON THE OFF SHORE FIRST. It would have raised their numbers. The DEMS want the prices to stay high!!!

Let the Dems eat dirt. We warned them.

[eggman]

"...he often alters and expands on the talking points provided to him by his foreign policy advisers."

The puppet masters let him have some input on the points or is he just rearranging the words a little?

[mylife]

Does this guy have a single thought that can be conveyed without assistance?

[Bosco]

Found a photo of one of their committee meetings...

[KC_Conspirator]

300 fools are 300 fools.