Obama's Foreign Policy Is Very Much a Continuation of the Bush Policies
The rookie's trip—and trip-ups—suggest Obama's not so unlike the man he replaced
Reader Comments
Panskeptic's Box
Panskeptic neatly avoids talking about any of the points and unforced errors the Obama administration is making. Bush bashing is not enough - that should be clear to anyone that's beyond schoolyard name calling and actually wants to talk issues and consequences.
Why doesn't Obama want to preserve our allies intact? He seems to give away negotiating points BEFORE the negotiation looking so weak. Why does he make rookie unforced errors - to mention one Barone left out - why does he push Turkey for EU entry - making happy one nation and alienating dozens in a new avenue of arrogance - one that steps directly on their toes in a way that even variance on military initiatives does not.
President Obama--President Bush
Michael Barone's article hits on the reality that foreign policy is not as easy to redirect as a change of Presidents. Mr Obama is pusuing a course, that although attempts to be a reversal of Bush policies,cannot escape the fact that American foreign policy is inherited from one administration to another. Remember that Mr Obama has inherited the same Congressional leadership that has failed to effectively offer any altenatives to the policies of Mr Bush. He is on his own. Deep down Democrats in Congress care little about Obama and care more about making sure they will never be to blame. It's easy enough to blame it all on one guy. It worked with Bush and it will work with Obama. The mideast has been exactly what we have always said it would be....a disastrous effort for all sides involved.....At least Mr Obama seems to be popular enough that most people do not see what Mr Barone see quite plainly.
Why can't Barone deal with reality?
No, "Axis of Evil" is dead. Declaring war because you feel like it is dead. Talking to people whom you disagree with is alive. It is 180 degrees away from the simplistic, Manichean, demonstrably disastrous Bush Doctrine.
Michael Barone should have quit after describing "an impulse, common in most new administrations, to renounce the darn-fool ideas of the jerks in the previous administration." That's all you need to know, the rest is eyewash.
