Obama Now on GOP Radar

Republican strategists are taking Barack Obama more seriously in the wake of his impressive performance at yesterday's Democratic presidential debate in Iowa and amid his surge in support among prospective caucusgoers there.

GOP veterans of past campaigns are, in fact, updating their detailed critiques in case the Illinois senator upsets Hillary Clinton and wins the Democratic presidential nomination next year. Among their talking points: Obama could be pegged as hopelessly naive on foreign policy and national security. One of Obama's pledges that have caught the Republicans' attention is his determination to spend much of his first year in office traveling the world to confer with leaders of rogue regimes in hopes of improving relations.

"He wants to meet with every anti-American despot," says the former adviser to a Republican president who is informally advising a GOP candidate this cycle. "That's not something that most Americans would like."

—Kenneth T. Walsh