Obama: Back to a more realist foreign policy

Barack Obama yesterday promised he would go back to a more traditional, realist foreign policy.

"The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush's father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan, and it is George Bush that's been naive and it's people like John McCain and, unfortunately, some Democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world," (read more at http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/29/837657.aspx)

It is somewhat surprising that Obama refers so directly to a foreign policy tradition that is more associated with Republican presidents. Furthermore his rival's campaign will definately not appreciate the fact that he once again did not mention Bill Clinton when aligning himself with former presidents.

Based on current policy proposals and their voting records people might assume that there is virtually no difference between the two democratic contenders concerning foreign policy. I never thought that this is the case. And no, it is not only Obama's early opposition to the war in Iraq as examplified by the speech at an anti-war ralley. Taking a closer look at Obama's foreign policy team one might discover a surprising amount of sanity. Who could better testify to that than the always infamous neocon publication American Thinker (remember some of the most vicious Ron Paul smears?).

In the end it is the foreign policy why quite a view prominent (traditional) conservatives have weighed in on behalf of Obama recently. Andrew J. Bacevich, however reluctantly, makes the conservative case for Barack Obama in the American Conservative titled The right choice?. A real good article that goes far beyond the actual campaign, for the author, among other things , tries to define authentic conservatism and why the current GOP does not really represent it. Highly instructive is a piece by Justin Raimondo from antiwar.com called The War Party Targets Obama. Raimondo focuses on the often fierce opposition from the pro war crowd against Obama and shows that many of the same mechanisms and persons are at play that have targeted Ron Paul. Almost every link in this article is worth following. Joshua Snyder finally, gives even more examples of conservatives leaning towards Obama in his Blog entry Make Way for the Obamacons!.

-- Johannes