Georgia On Their Minds
- 08.10.2008 - 6:09 PMWe were not the only ones to notice that Barack Obama had to reverse course and race to catch up to John McCain on Georgia. Could this be a big deal? It depends on how this is resolved and on the McCain camp frames this incident. If the argument is over a break-away province in Georgia and the matter is quickly put to bed, then it is hard to see how it matters. But if this, as it appears now, is a serious international crisis and evidence of the danger of revived Russian imperialistic designs then it potentially is a major foreign policy issue. It is one more reminder that we live in unstable and dangerous times. That’s a reminder the Obama camp would rather voters not have.
Moreover, McCain can claim that for the second time since Obama has been in office, the surge being the first, Obama failed to appreciate the need for decisive U.S. action and revealed that he is ill-equipped to deal with an international incident. By contrast McCain has been onto Putin for some time. Obama is scrambling quickly to correct course, but his surrogates aren’t helping much in this regard.
And who can blame them? Obama’s bizarre initial reaction (George Will explains well at the five-minute mark) and even stranger decision to attack a McCain advisor using Russian talking points suggests that he and his staff of 300 seriously misread the situation. A day or two lag in getting up to speed is not bad for a candidate; but it’s crucial for a President. As Will said, what this showed about Obama is that “his first responses are not good enough.”
Whether McCain can explain that and revive the “3 a.m.” questions remains an open question. The advantage that he has: he’s not on a nine day vacation in Hawaii. And the second advantage: on a Sunday talk show day, plenty of reporters are noticing.
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