Moderator: Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton’s former national security advisor, state department policy advisor and Navy secretary, among others, advising you. With relatively little foreign policy experience of your own, how will you rely on so many Clinton advisors and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you’re promising voters.
Much laughter, including Mrs. Hillary Clinton distinctive laugh before she offered this crack.
Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton: I want to hear that.
Candidate Barack Obama: Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.
Much applause.
Sen. Obama, with a big smile on his face, continued as the applause rolled: I want to gather up talent from everywhere. You know, we haven’t talked too much about the war but one of the points that I’ve tried to make during the course of this year during the campaign is I want to change the mindset that got us into war because I think that, since 9/11, we’ve had a president who essentially fed us a politics of fear and distorted our foreign policy in profound ways. I think that there are a lot of good people in the Clinton years, in the Carter years, George Bush I, who understand that our military power is just one component of our power, and I revere what our military does. I will do whatever it takes, as commander-in-chief, to keep the American people safe but I know that part of making us safe is restoring our respect in the world and I think those who are advising me agree with that. Part of the agenda that we’re putting forward in terms of talking not just to our friends but also to our enemies, initiating contacts with Muslim leaders around the world, doubling our efforts in terms of foreign aid, all those are designed to create long term security by creating long-term prosperity around the world.
And so it has come to pass, that little noted exchange during a debate in Iowa has largely come true. On stage that day almost a year ago were Obama, HRC, Sen. Joe Biden, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and former Senator John Edwards. Well, Biden is now the Vice-President, Richardson is Commerce Secretary, and HRC is Secretary of State.
Only Edwards, who disgraced himself by having an affair on his cancer-stricken wife, did not make the cut.
They are calling it a “Team of Rivals.”
Obama, as he has resolutely built his administration with people recognized as stalwarts in their fields, says he’s simply gathering the very best talent available to lead America. We may quibble (my views on HRC are very well known) on some of the names, but it is clear that the President-elect (God, how I love writing that!) knows very well where he wants to lead the nation and how.
