Campaign '08: Obama's Foreign Policy Advisers | Newsweek The Council on Foreign Relations

POLITICS
In Denver, Making Room for Moscow
8/27/2008 12:00:00 AM
Until a few weeks ago, the idea that Russia would have any sort of influence on U.S. presidential politics in this electoral cycle would have struck most people as absurd. Neither its position as a major energy power, its influence on Iran's nuclear program, its own enormous nuclear weapons arsenal, nor its frequently demonstrated willingness to play hardball with the nations it once ruled in the Soviet empire warranted much attention on the hustings. Both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates, had made policy statements prior to the Caucasus flare-up. But Russia did not headline either campaign's battle plans, although McCain had generated comment by calling for Russia's ouster from the G8 in 2007.
EXPERT OPINION
Advice for Obama
7/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
Sometime near the beginning of what many here hope will be the first of Obama's two terms, and at the latest in 2010, the British government will most probably change from Labour to Conservative, from Gordon Brown to David Cameron. But Washington needn't worry: the next lot will be even more pro-American than the last. The Tories adore Obama, NATO, New York and American ways of doing almost everything. A Conservative government will, like the Blair and Brown ones, share Obama's insistence on taking a long-term, multifaceted approach to combating terrorism and his emphasis on the importance of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Britain's armed forces are overstretched and underfunded, but they will still help America as best they can, especially in Afghanistan. London is the place to have a conversation about a joint political, military and economic strategy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan. We have been in those places before. And we're there in several ways now—not just militarily but through our many new Brits of Pakistani origin who live mentally, if not physically, in both countries.
FACT CHECK
Factcheck.org On the Cleveland Debate
Brooks Jackson 2/27/2008 12:00:00 AM
SummaryThe Clinton-Obama showdown debate in Cleveland produced several false, twisted or dubious claims, most of which we've heard and debunked before.
FACTCHECK.ORG
Factcheck.org: Clinton and Obama's GOP Crossfire
Joe Miller 1/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
SummaryA radio ad sponsored by Hillary Clinton reprises her misleading claim that Barack Obama likes Republican ideas. Obama has responded with an ad that makes a half-true accusation that Clinton "championed" NAFTA. We find that both claims are misleading and that the candidates are, in fact, making mountains of molehills.Specifically, we found that:
VIEWPOINT
It’s Not About the T Shirts
Matt Frei
In Berlin his face stares out from T shirts and baseball caps. In Naples one enterprising restaurant has named a pizza after him (toppings: pineapple chunks and bacon). In Britain he enjoys an approval rating of 74 percent—compared with his opponent's 42 percent and Prime Minister Gordon Brown's measly 28 percent. In just about every European language the name "Obama" echoes through corridors of power, schoolyards and coiffeur salons like a mantra. Much of the continent has eagerly replaced its loathing of George W. Bush with fierce love for a 46-year-old Illinois senator who has yet to be elected to the White House.
CAMPAIGN 2008
A Game of Survivor
Michael Hirsh
Hillary Clinton's day at the polls was not unlike her bumpy plane ride from Texas to Ohio earlier Tuesday: everyone on board had white knuckles, but in the end she survived. The New York senator snapped Barack Obama's 12-state winning streak, decisively taking the key state of Ohio—a likely must-win state for Democrats in the fall—by a significant margin, and eking out a narrow win in Texas. She also handily won Rhode Island. Those three wins made it probable the Democratic battle would go on for some time to come despite Obama's seemingly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates and Clinton's loss in Vermont on Tuesday.