What Qualifies for Foreign Policy Experience?

OK - if you haven't heard the latest from Obama, I can tell you it is a doozy. I hesitate to reference a Huffington Post piece since so many bloggers here have become rabid, but there was a piece by Mayhill Fowler about a fundraiser Obama had in San Francisco on Sunday. Oh, wow. All I can say is, who knew that by just traveling to a country while, say, in college, it meant you had MORE foreign policy experience than BOTH McCain and Clinton?? Oh, don't take my word for it - here's part of the post:

Last night at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama took a question on what he's looking for in a running mate. "I would like somebody who knows about a bunch of stuff that I'm not as expert on," he said, and then he was off and running. "I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing to make me look more Commander-in-Chief-like. Ironically, this is an area--foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."

"It's ironic because this is supposedly the place where experience is most needed to be Commander-in-Chief. Experience in Washington is not knowledge of the world. This I know. When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries'--I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then--you go."

"You do that in eighty countries--you don't know those eighty countries. So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa--knowing the leaders is not important--what I know is the people. . . ."

"I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college--I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . . ."
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-says-no-to-foreign_b_95357.html)

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!!??!! This is the guy that everyone thinks is so BRILLIANT?? Who is going to change "politics as usual in Washington???" He sounds JUST LIKE GEORGE BUSH to me!! Good GODDESS, what is WRONG with people?!?!?!?!

Ahem. Okay. So, Clinton was on a couple of the morning shows yesterday, and since I started with an organization I did not think I'd reference, here's another one: Fox News. I know, I know - but it is Clinton's response to Obama's ridiculous claims:

Hillary Clinton took no quarter Tuesday in responding to a reported claim by Barack Obama that he has more foreign policy experience than either Clinton or Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.

According to the Huffington Post blog, Obama was addressing a crowd of fundraisers in San Francisco on Sunday when he began talking about his choice for vice president, and said he would choose someone who adds to his expertise.

“I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing to make me look more commander in chief-like. Ironically, this is an area — foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain,” Obama reportedly said.

Clinton, speaking with FOX News Tuesday morning, said she was baffled by the claim.

“I’m somewhat shocked by that since I don’t see any evidence of it,” Clinton said, chuckling. “This is, you know, kind of hard to square with his failure ever to have a single policy hearing on the only responsibility he was given, chairing the European and NATO subcommittee on the Foreign Relations Committee.

“And as he admitted in the last debate, he was too busy running for president to pay attention to what we needed to do to improve our chances in Afghanistan and get NATO more involved. So, you know, I, I ,I don’t, I don’t know, I’m speechless. I mean, you know, making an assertion like that belies the facts and the record.”

Obama is scheduled on Tuesday to chair the subcommittee’s hearing on the nomination of Kurt Volker to be the permanent U.S. representative to NATO. All three presidential candidates are in town for Senate hearings with Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker, the top U.S. military and diplomatic leaders in Iraq.

According to the report, in his remarks Obama again mentioned his childhood years in Indonesia and family in Kenya, and blasted Clinton’s claim of visiting more than 80 countries.

“When Senator Clinton brags ‘I’ve met leaders from 80 countries,’ I know what those trips are like. I’ve been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There’s a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then you go.

Clinton on Tuesday scoffed at the notion that Obama is more in touch with other countries than her.

“He’s apparently talking about his own experience, which is quite limited,” Clinton said. “You know, for 15 years I’ve been spending a lot of time in other countries,” she said, naming China, Ireland and Kosovo among the places she’s traveled to “where the conversation and discussions were substantive and lengthy.”

“So I’m not quite sure exactly where Senator Obama has been. So far as I know, he’s maybe taken two trips. But that’s fine, I mean, he can say whatever he wishes about his own experience and we’ll leave it up to voters to determine who really is ready to be commander in chief and who is ready to restore America’s standing and moral authority in the world,” Clinton said.
(http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/08/clinton-takes-obama-to-task-over-foreign-policy-experience-claim/)