Obama and McCain blur their battle lines
The two rivals are in danger of agreeing
Andrew Sullivan
Times of London
Something very strange and a little unnerving is happening in American politics on the question of foreign policy. Everyone seems to be agreeing with one another, while adamantly refusing to admit it.
Both Barack Obama and John McCain gave big foreign policy speeches last week, and President George W Bush gave a press conference. They all spoke in clear and sometimes sweeping terms. Each of the two presidential candidates made every effort to portray the other as his nemesis and the choice between them as one of clear principle and philosophy. Obama and McCain also desperately sought to put rhetorical blue sky between them and the still fantastically unpopular president.
Look a little closer, though, and the differences between all three blur. Take Iran: Obama has famously argued that the US should deal directly with the mullahs, negotiate the nuclear question and have talks without the precondition that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment. This was a clear and vital difference, we were told only a short time ago, between a reckless, appeasing Obama and the resolute, Churchillian Bushies.
And yet last week Bush authorised William Burns, a high-level State Department official, to attend talks with Tehran’s representatives on the Iranian nuclear question. By putting oomph behind the six-power talks with Tehran, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, moved the Bush administration clearly in the direction laid out by Obama. And when you see this in the context of the recent deal with North Korea, the difference between the second term of the Bush administration and its first couldn’t be starker.
What of Iraq? Obama’s position has long been that troops should be withdrawn expeditiously but with care, and that the US military should shift its emphasis towards Afghanistan and Pakistan. And, lo and behold, last week we were also told that Bush was considering accelerating the exit of Iraq troops to beef up the Afghan mission.
(Continued here.)
Andrew Sullivan
Times of London
Something very strange and a little unnerving is happening in American politics on the question of foreign policy. Everyone seems to be agreeing with one another, while adamantly refusing to admit it.
Both Barack Obama and John McCain gave big foreign policy speeches last week, and President George W Bush gave a press conference. They all spoke in clear and sometimes sweeping terms. Each of the two presidential candidates made every effort to portray the other as his nemesis and the choice between them as one of clear principle and philosophy. Obama and McCain also desperately sought to put rhetorical blue sky between them and the still fantastically unpopular president.
Look a little closer, though, and the differences between all three blur. Take Iran: Obama has famously argued that the US should deal directly with the mullahs, negotiate the nuclear question and have talks without the precondition that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment. This was a clear and vital difference, we were told only a short time ago, between a reckless, appeasing Obama and the resolute, Churchillian Bushies.
And yet last week Bush authorised William Burns, a high-level State Department official, to attend talks with Tehran’s representatives on the Iranian nuclear question. By putting oomph behind the six-power talks with Tehran, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, moved the Bush administration clearly in the direction laid out by Obama. And when you see this in the context of the recent deal with North Korea, the difference between the second term of the Bush administration and its first couldn’t be starker.
What of Iraq? Obama’s position has long been that troops should be withdrawn expeditiously but with care, and that the US military should shift its emphasis towards Afghanistan and Pakistan. And, lo and behold, last week we were also told that Bush was considering accelerating the exit of Iraq troops to beef up the Afghan mission.
(Continued here.)
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