Monday, April 07, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Obama: 'I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain.'

Obama at a recent fundraiser:

"Foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."

"It's ironic because this is supposedly the place where experience is most needed to be Commander-in-Chief. Experience in Washington is not knowledge of the world. This I know. When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries'—I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then—you go.

"You do that in eighty countries—you don't know those eighty countries. So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa—knowing the leaders is not important—what I know is the people. . . .

"I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college—I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . . ."

Word of the Pakistan trip was new to me, as well as the Politico's Ben Smith.

I'm not doubting the senator's word on this, but isn't it surprising that it never came up during the whole, "I would not hesitate to use military force in Pakistan" brouhaha of last year?

This appears to be the first time Obama has mentioned his trip to Pakistan in his public career. 

04/07 01:40 PMShare