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Originally Posted by Rabz
What i find really amazing and amusing at the same time is this is NOT THE President, BUT the presidential candidate who is touring overseas and meeting with heads of other major nations, giving speech, having meeting, attending press conference!
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Originally Posted by Alien
Yeah, he is acting like he won the election already. I haven't heard much about Bush or the republican guy McCain lately. In the news its all Obama.
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Rabz & Alien, this is simply effective political strategy by the Obama campaign.
In part, it's because the McCain campaign has tried to position him (McCain) as more experienced in foreign policy issues. It hasn't worked very well for McCain, largely because he keeps on making asinine errors which suggest that he is either rather ignorant about the rest of the world, or suffering from senility. His rather lackluster low-key trips abroad, hardly reported by the media, haven't helped either.
Now, the average American voter isn't the brightest bulb in the room (I mean, this is the fellow who voted Bush into office a second time, right?); he doesn't really know or care about foreign policy nuances; but to him, this tour by Obama is effectively bolstering Obama's foreign policy credentials. Keep in mind that Americans in general have almost a pathological desire to be liked, respected, and admired and are quite aware that they are currently unpopular abroad. The observation that Obama gets cheered overseas, that he is an American who is actually liked abroad, gets the average voter to identify with him. And, in the end, it means a vote for Obama.
So, frankly, this isn't so much about arrogance as it is about shrewd electoral strategy.
Now, I have issues with Obama -- I don't like candidates who have never really articulated their policy platforms (
Yes, we can! is not a policy platform), but run on a nebulous feeling of goodwill and a desire for change. And unlike some dismayed liberals, I was not at all surprised by his hard tack to the center after "winning" the Democratic primaries. But given that Kucinich or Nader had no chance whatsoever of ever getting elected president, I think Obama is definitely the lesser of the two evils compared with say, "Bomb Iran" McCain.