Back to Basics
If only for the benefit of readers in New Hampshire, and because foreign policy has somewhat slipped away from the campaign narratives in both parties, it seems timely to review the foreign policy approaches of some of the leading candidates.
- John McCain spoke in December with the Washington Post and CFR.org on his impressions of Americans’ views of foreign policy.
- In the past, Mike Huckabee’s foreign policy prowess has been questioned. In this speech to CSIS in Washington, Huckabee said this that his Republican counterparts later called out:
This Administration’s bunker mentality has been counter-productive both at home and abroad. They have done as poor a job of communicating and consulting with other countries as they have with the American people.
As a rule, the leading Democratic candidates agree on most approaches to foreign affairs (putting past decisions aside, and with the one exception of Barack Obama’s take on military action in Pakistan.)
- A beaming, Obama-supporting Andrew Sullivan links to this foreign policy address by the candidate in August. Key quote:
By refusing to end the war in Iraq, President Bush is giving the terrorists what they really want, and what the Congress voted to give them in 2002: a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.
- Patrick Healy of the New York Times reviews Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Affairs essay, which is perhaps the most comprehensive outline of her views out there.
Most of the candidates submitted essays to Foreign Affairs through the fall with their own approaches to foreign policy. You can find them each here.