As part of the One World strategy, he treats our longtime friends and allies with suspicion, while welcoming our enemies with naive tolerance. He insults the British and the French and betrays the Poles, while kowtowing to the North Koreans and the Iranians.
He agrees to allow the G-20 nations to decide how much we can pay executives in private American corporations. If he's not stopped in 2010, he'll try to place the entire American economy under the rule of the International Monetary Fund and the G-20 (including countries like Argentina, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Russia). It's in the works.
In his response to a question about whether he believed in "American exceptionalism"--a phrase that indicates America has a special place and role in the world--he replied, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Which is another way of saying he doesn't believe it at all.
His advisers developed a strategic plan to capitalize on this outsize interest. The plan--which Rouse and the rest ingeniously dubbed "The Plan"--called for Obama to dive neck-deep into fundraising for his Senate colleagues. (They'll be coming to you anyway, Rouse told him, so you might as well volunteer.) To give major speeches on national policy: energy, education, economics. To travel abroad as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to build his credibility on international affairs. To expand his political horizons aggressively and systematically. Obama put his shoulder to the wheel.
The reaction of the McCain campaign was unambiguous. It went on the attack. It released an ad unveiling the campaign's slogan, "Country First," with its insinuation that Obama put something else (i.e. his ambition) above the nation.
FACT CHECK: An Obama adviser acknowledged in March that Obama’s presidential candidacy prevented him from calling hearings, saying to ABC News: “The record is what it is. He didn’t become chairman of that subcommittee until January of 2007. The fact is that he made his announcement for president of the US in February of 2007. So, he had other things on his mind.”
A: The European Union as a whole has been a long-standing ally of ours, and through NATO we’ve been able to make some significant progress. We also have to look east, because increasingly, the center of gravity in this world is shifting to Asia. Japan has been an outstanding ally of ours for many years. But, obviously, China is rising and it’s not going away. They’re neither our enemy nor our friend. They’re competitors.
A: The key is to make sure that there’s legitimacy to those elections. And given the enormous tragedy that has happened, I think that it is understandable if those elections are delayed slightly. But it’s important that this is not used as an excuse to put off, indefinitely, elections. My main concern is making sure that the opposition parties feel comfortable that they have the opportunity to participate in fair and free elections. That also means that we reinstate an independent judiciary in Pakistan, that there is a free press, that the campaigning can proceed. Because our primary interest is making sure that whatever government emerges in Pakistan is viewed as legitimate. The vast majority of the Pakistani people are moderate and believe in rule of law. That’s who we want as allies in the fight against Islamic extremism.
A: The first thing we want to do is to contact the Pakistani government to get assurances from them that the nuclear stockpiles are secured. The second thing is to make sure that Musharraf is sending a clear message to the family of Bhutto and her supporters that he recognizes this is a tragedy and express sympathies to try to keep tempers cooled in the capital cities and major urban areas. And the third thing that we have to do is to make sure that elections continue. If they’re not going to continue as planned on January 8th, then shortly thereafter, but there has to be a clear message from the Musharraf government that in fact this won’t be used as an excuse to subvert democracy.
A: China is a competitor, but they don’t have an enemy, as long as we understand that they are going to be negotiating aggressively for their advantage, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re looking after American workers. That means enforcing our trade agreements; it means that if they’re manipulating their currency, that we take them to the mat on the that issue; it means that we are also not running up deficits and asking China to bail us out.