Cast of hundreds advises Obama on foreign policy

[TheSarge]

WASHINGTON: Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Obama supported the decision by Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Obama with bullet points, was yes — or "a genuine opportunity," as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

"It is unwieldy, no question," said Denis McDonough, 38, Obama's top foreign policy aide, speaking of an infrastructure that has been divided into 20 teams based on regions and issues, and that has recently absorbed, with some tensions, the top foreign policy advisers from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "But an administration is unwieldy, too. We also know that it's messier when you don't get as much information as you can."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/18/america/18advisers.php

[DixieBelle]

So it's okay because an administration is messy and unwieldy anyway yet slamming Bush and his administration for not being clairvoyant and perfect is okay???

[TheSarge]

So it's okay because an administration is messy and unwieldy anyway yet slamming Bush and his administration for not being clairvoyant and perfect is okay???

If you're a Lib that all makes perfect sense.

[formerlurker]

The autopsy on the Kerry presidential campaign showed that this very issue of too damn many "advisors" was the primary reason for his loss (that and he is a POS liar).   

History and the democrats.   Like oil and water.

[docstew]

WASHINGTON: Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Obama supported the decision by Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Obama with bullet points, was yes — or "a genuine opportunity," as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

"It is unwieldy, no question," said Denis McDonough, 38, Obama's top foreign policy aide, speaking of an infrastructure that has been divided into 20 teams based on regions and issues, and that has recently absorbed, with some tensions, the top foreign policy advisers from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "But an administration is unwieldy, too. We also know that it's messier when you don't get as much information as you can."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/18/america/18advisers.php

as the policy maker, shouldn't he be coming up with the answers?  oh, wait, that requires those things called judgment and experience... nm

[Wretched Excess]

susan rice is on joe scarborough's morning show a lot, has caught my attention lately.  she is very shrill, overly combative, and instantly becomes indignant over just about anything.  I have been googling her lately, and found this puff piece.

[Jim]

300 people all there to tell him what to parrot.  No wonder he winds up making such freaking stupid statements all the time.  He has no idea what he's saying nor any comprehension of what it means.

He's a script reader.  Proof of the pudding is when he goes off script.

BHO should forget politics and go get a job replacing Katie Couric.  Its good money, he can pontificate and still go to all the cool parties and such.

[Tess Anderson]

Well, you know what they say, Jim - took many cooks spoil the broth. And these are some sorry cooks involved here to begin with.

But maybe BHO needs all the help he can get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBMv-GfFwAE&

he certainly doesn't seem familiar with recent history.

[Jim]

Well, you know what they say, Jim - took many cooks spoil the broth. And these are some sorry cooks involved here to begin with.

But maybe BHO needs all the help he can get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBMv-GfFwAE&

he certainly doesn't seem familiar with recent history.

lost sight of the teleprompter and winged it with the predictable results

and you make a most important point, he's surrounded with the sorry assed leftovers of lib politics why want to change things back to McGovern.

[Lacarnut]

The autopsy on the Kerry presidential campaign showed that this very issue of too damn many "advisors" was the primary reason for his loss (that and he is a POS liar).   

History and the democrats.   Like oil and water.

The more the merrier; I think they need a couple of hundred more at least. It will be like the patients running the asylum.

[Jim]

The autopsy on the Kerry presidential campaign showed that this very issue of too damn many "advisors" was the primary reason for his loss (that and he is a POS liar).   

History and the democrats.   Like oil and water.

The more the merrier; I think they need a couple of hundred more at least. It will be like the patients running the asylum.

good point.  if he buys more then its additional money pissed away.