Obamamania On The Right
By Cliff Kincaid
December 3, 2008
Page 3 of 3
Hillary has a long association with the World Federalists and Brookings Institution president Strobe Talbott, a world government advocate who served in her husband's administration, while Biden's pro-U.N. credentials are just as strong. "How I Learned to Love the New World Order" was the title of an article he wrote for the Wall Street Journal. This year, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he held stacked hearings in favor of the Law of the Sea Treaty and passed it out of committee, with the support of the ranking Republican member, Senator Richard Lugar, and the Bush Administration.
"As for Hillary," writes Mona Charen, "well, she is no Jeane Kirkpatrick." But on the other hand, Charen maintained, "she is not Carl Levin or Dennis Kucinich or Anthony Lake or Samantha Power."
Charen may not recall that Lake served in the Clinton Administration as national security adviser. Lake and Clinton also share many views. And Samantha Power, who left the Obama campaign for a while after bad-mouthing Hillary Clinton, is back on the Obama transition team handling State Department issues. In any case, the views of Mrs. Clinton are virtually indistinguishable from those of Anthony Lake and Samantha Power in the area of expanding U.N. power in world affairs. And all of these figures favor Senate ratification of many controversial U.N. treaties.
I don't doubt that Obama's brain, David Axelrod, is behind this propaganda effort to convince people, including conservatives, that Obama really isn't so radical after all. Such an effort could pay enormous political dividends.
To be fair, some picks do look good. Consider, for example, General James Jones, Obama's choice for national security adviser, who is a four-star Marine general. But a military figure of this stature in the administration will be absolutely necessary if Obama has any hope of pushing through the Law of the Sea Treaty, as he has vowed to do. Indeed, the Bush Administration ordered Navy Admirals to go to Capitol Hill to sell that same treaty earlier this year.
In terms of propaganda value, if Republican senators are convinced by people like Barnes and Charen that Obama is really a moderate or centrist on foreign policy, they may be more inclined to vote to ratify the treaties he sends to the Senate. Keep in mind that, even if the Democrats get their 60 votes in order to stop a filibuster, they will still need 67 votes to pass treaties. And that means some Republicans will have to be convinced to go along with the program. What better way to get those votes than to create the public perception that Obama is a moderate? It is an Axelrod masterstroke.
Whether Lake or Power ultimately gets a high-level job is really beside the point. They have already been very influential behind-the-scenes. And there is no reason to believe they disagree with any of Obama's picks.
In the end, as Obama has emphasized, he is responsible for the "vision" and he expects his team to carry that out. Obama will give the orders and even a four-star General will have to obey.
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Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2 3
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