Dreams From My Father

By: Admin as summary from Jesse Gordon

Obama's Book

Here I’ll discuss one aspect of Obama’s background, which is his internationalism. While the mainstream press was overwhelmingly enamored with Obama on that trip, it has become clear upon Obama’s return that the voting public has not responded nearly as positively. Obama’s popularity abroad relates to Obama’s international upbringing, as outlined in this book.

Obama spent several years of his childhood living abroad — four years in Indonesia. The question for the presidential race is this: Does Obama’s personal experience living abroad count as foreign policy expertise? I would say Yes, because I personally have a similar experience as Obama, and I consider that a valid basis for claiming foreign policy expertise. I’ve resided in Denmark, Hong Kong, and Israel, for 6 to 12 months each; I’ve traveled to more than 40 countries and spent a total of about 4 or 5 years abroad; I’ve been in relationships with women living in France, Denmark, Hong Kong, and Pakistan. I do consider that I have substantial foreign policy expertise, entirely on the basis of that personal experience.

To illustrate why that qualifies me as a foreign policy expert, I’ll relate my experience in a class on foreign policy at the Master’s degree level at Harvard University in the early 1990s. I attended an introductory class on foreign policy with the intent of concentrating in that field. But I found that my fellow students had relatively little knowledge of world politics — despite that most had just graduated from foreign policy undergraduate institutions.

Obama is an internationalist. Internationalist Americans DO understand foreigners — and foreigners are well-aware of distinguishing internationalist Americans from our more isolated brethren. Obama’s massive crowd of supporters in Germany was an acknowledgement from the Germans that they recognize Obama as an internationalist.

Obama thought he would be seen on this trip as Presidential — but in fact his popularity abroad was seen as just another way in which Obama differs from most Americans, because most Americans are not internationalist. Hence Obama’s trip abroad was seen as elitist by most American voters — not as evidence of foreign policy expertise, even though it WAS seen that way abroad.

Well, Obama better shut up about his internationalism too, or he’ll alienate most Americans by seeming elitist. And, although any internationalist would certainly grant Obama the lead over McCain in relevant foreign policy expertise, the American voting public will not. Therefore Obama needs to pick a Vice President who has more conventional foreign policy expertise, to counter McCain’s attacks on this front.

You could find others Obama’s book, The audacity of Hope.