Clinton-Obama and Foreign Policy

Since the YouTube debate on Monday, Senators Clinton and Obama have been engaging in a war of words over the 'nuances' (to quote John Kerry) of the tactics that they each would use in engaging foreign leaders who are (or will not be) friendly to the United States. (Think: Hugo Chavez).


The verbal exchange including Hillary referring to Obama as "irresponsible and frankly naive" and he in return, wondering whether a Hillary Administration would be "Bush Cheney Lite"

Today's news indicates that Obama is continuing to press the the point, despite the conventional wisdom that wonders whether (a) Obama is on the right side of the issue; and (b) whether anyone is paying attention in the last week of July otherwise dominated by the travails of Lindsay Lohan (whose latest movie also opened this week, in a rare case of defining the rule that "all publicity is good publicity").

In response, the Clinton campaign trotted out former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. However, the somewhat tepid response showed the difficulty that all campaigns have at times in getting surrogates to be as aggressive as the campaign would like them to be -- after all, it's not the surrogate's name on the ballot. Vilsack's comment:

I think it reflects a curious approach, a curious judgment on the part of the good senator