Like most people, I haven't chosen a "horse" to back in the '08 Presidential race. One of the things you look at, though, is the people the candidate chooses to play roles in his/her campaign. Accordingly, I was very pleased to see that Barack Obama has added one of the more incisive writers I have read in the last few years. Following the race for the British reading public, the Independent notes in tomorrow's edition,
"One of the biggest names to work with Obama is Samantha Power, the scholar and journalist who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. "In 2004, I came out of election night just completely depressed," Power says. "We thought Kerry would win and we'd all get a chance to change the world. But then it was like, 'Nah, same old thing.'" Obama gave her a place to channel her energy. She advised him on the genocide in Darfur, an issue that most politicians at the time were studiously avoiding.
Power is part of a generation of thinkers who, like Obama, came of age after the Cold War. They worry about the problems created by globalisation and believe that the most important issues America will confront in the future (terrorism, avian flu, global warming, bioweapons, the disease and nihilism that grow from concentrated poverty) will emanate from neglected and failed states (Afghanistan, the Congo, Sierra Leone).
Over the past two years, Obama has come to adopt this worldview as his own. He came back fascinated from a quick trip to a US project in Ethiopia, where American soldiers had parachuted in to help the victims of a flood: "By investing now," he said, "we avoid an Iraq or Afghanistan later." The foreign-policy initiatives he has fought for and passed have followed this model: he has secured money to fight avian flu, improve security in the Congo and safeguard Russian nuclear weapons."
I think this says several important things about Obama. First, he looks forward, at the world we are now living in, when he looks at solutions to ongoing problems. With all due respect to Secretary Rice, John McCain and other Cold War vets, you aren't going to solve every problem with conventional military force. You have to use "smart power" a lot of the time, as Obama noted above. Secondly, Obama is a writer and appreciates other writers. Good writers are above all clear thinkers, a quality not to be underestimated in the Presidency. Third, he's not afraid of people with greater expertise than his own in a given area. You need a President who knows what he doesn't know, knows his weaknesses, will listen actively to others.
It's early yet, but it's always true that you know people by the company they keep, and I like what I see of Obama's.
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7 comments:
I'm supporting Governor Romney at this juncture. I agree with his stances on major issues, and I'm impressed with how successful and popular he is in an overwhelmingly blue state; to me, this shows that he's capable of working with the more left-wing members of congress.
I agree, I think Mitt is the class of the field on the Republican side at this point. I'll be looking for someone who can talk to both red and blue-staters, too.
I notice Newt Gingrich is making the rounds of the conservative Christian interview shows...I wonder if he will decide to toss his hat into the ring at some point.
I'm not sure. I guess the Speaker is saying that if he decides to run, he won't announce his candidacy until September 2007, which some political analysts say is too late.
I don't know y'all, I don't think I am ready to think about the presidental election just yet. It'll be interesting to see the scenario this time next year. Maybe then I'll be ready to think about this.
i'll stick with a new commer to the national scene as well.i would back rudy g. anyone who can win as mayor in democratic nyc has to know something. he supposedly has some liberal thoughts but considering there really isn't much difference between the right and the left why not give it to him. he did work hard to clean up the city and has a good background in working with a large budget bigger than some countries in the world.
I think you're right, Rudy has a good chance. He's kind of an Eisenhower analogy, I guess, set to parlay a major success in a difficult endeavor into a viable candidacy. He's got precedent, for sure. And he's got New York...we've had a lot of Presidents come from there, including two named, uh, let me jog my memory here, Roosevelt? New York is a big place, a big stage, and its candidates tend to succeed elsewhere.
I'd agree that there isn't much of a difference between republicans and democrats, but there is a big difference between the right and the left. I know of several democrats in congress that are far more conservative than some republicans
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