I keep thinking about those early December CBS Evening News candidate interviews I mentioned. Each was asked which country scares them the most. Sen. Clinton correctly responded, "Pakistan" (CBS video). Sen. Obama said "Iran," (CBS video).  

It hit me that Obama has drunk the Bush/Cheney/Neo-con "Kool-Aid" exaggerating the threat of Iran -- like he bought GOP talking points on Social Security -- and hasn't thought out real global concerns. Partly, it's that he hasn't traveled much; Steve Clemons is still trying to get an accurate statement from Obama on his travel history.  Nor has he done the hard work: He hasn't held a single hearing as chair of the Foreign Relations' subcommittee on European Affairs (which includes NATO and therefore Afghanistan, which Obama loves to bring up as neglected due to Iraq, but which he hasn't done any "executive decision making" about -- more on NATO/Afghanistan below the fold).

Dr. Reza Aslan, in a WaPoop-ed today, hits Obama's weakness head-on. Obama's besotted fans, like "conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan" (it's so odd that there are so many conservative fans of Obama) who "imagine" that "it is Obama's face -- just his face -- that 'proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can'." Democratic voters had better sober up. It's "naive, well-meaning, amateurish." Dr. Aslan, author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, continues:

[It is that Obama fans are] convinced that everyone understands the goodness of U.S. intentions -- that worries me again these days. That's because a curious and dangerous consensus seems to be forming among the chattering classes, on both the left and the right, that what the United States needs in these troubling times is not knowledge and experience but a "fresh face" with an "intuitive sense of the world," and that the mere act of electing Obama will put us on the path to winning the so-called war on terror.

There's more...

Larry Johnson finds it disturbing that Barack Obama, the head of the Subcommittee on European Affairs for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has never been to Europe and that he would be the first US President since Coolidge to have not been to Europe.

Be Obama's European Tour Guide Contest

By Larry Johnson on December 21, 2007 at 5:41 PM in Current Affairs

Calvin Coolidge hearts Senator Obama. Why? Because if Obama is elected President he will be the first president since the reign of Calvin Coolidge who has not visited Europe. What would we say about John Edwards or Joe Biden, for example, if they had chaired the Foreign Relations subcommittee on African affairs but never visited Africa or held a single hearing? This is not simple nitpicking of Obama.  It goes to the heart of the matter in judging whether he is ready for prime time. His failure to show even a shred of leadership despite chairing the Subcommittee on European Affairs for the Senate Foreign Relations committee is stunning.

snip

So, just to cover our bets, I am running a contest designed to help Obama get ready for primetime. The contest is simple-In 200 words or less, tell us why you are the best person to take Obama to Europe, what you would show him, and why it is important. Contest ends 3 January 2008, at 7 p.m. eastern standard time.

Contest rules can be found here:

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/12/21/ be-obamas-european-tour-guide-contest/

Oh, yeah. Obama's subcommittee has never held a meeting. It's easy to understand why. A meeting might require going out on a political limb to say "present".

There's more...

Illinois' disabled veterans are at "rock bottom" -- "dead last" -- in benefits and claims processing of applications for disability. But Illinois' veterans take a back seat because their junior senator is running for president.  And that senator, Barack Obama, has missed an astonishing number of hearings and meetings of the Senate Veterans committee.

Obama is nothing if not audacious in touting his veterans committee membership as contributing to his "foreign policy" experience for the presidency, while his own state's veterans suffer.  The Chicago Sun-Times ran a devastating investigative series in 2004-2005 (see Truthout) that showed that Illinois' veterans rank last, or near-last (depends on the graph) in disability awards of the 50 states and Puerto Rico (Illinois average:  $6,961; New Mexico average: $12,004). The New York Times's 2007 article shows Illinois' disabled soldiers are still waiting over two years later: "Illinois, which has deployed the sixth-highest number of soldiers of any state, has the second-largest backlog."

Sen. Obama admitted he didn't know anything about problems at Walter Reed before the WaPo's shattering series. And Sen. Obama has missed KEY votes for disabled veterans -- including a measure that would create "common disability ratings."

There's more...