tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512362.post3382782566305141290..comments2024-03-10T13:59:19.230-04:00Comments on xpostfactoid: In which Clinton slams Obama by articulating his "organizing principle"Andrew Sprunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17601269968798865106noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512362.post-82529004176408864232014-08-19T16:05:03.595-04:002014-08-19T16:05:03.595-04:00Fantastic post! It perhaps shows that the differen...Fantastic post! It perhaps shows that the differences between Obama and Clinton were more about their ways of managing their respective interviewers (Goldberg vs. Friedman), except for your important caveats about Israel, Iran, and Syria.<br /><br />Other thoughts:<br />1) I wish both Obama and Clinton, when discussing foreign policy, would emphatically talk more about non-military rather than military matters. So I hope Clinton continues with her "smart power" theme, however much that's warmed-over rhetoric within IR academia from the early 2000s and even earlier from the 1990s with "soft power." They do discuss this, but every time they give space for the media to conflate foreign policy with military policy, they let the US fall back into the rut of narrow notions about how the US can influence the world.<br /><br />2) On the matter of Israel, it's still hard to make out Clinton's set of convictions and political calculation. On the one hand, it may help her currently with older Democratic donors and (maybe?) with intra-elite foreign policy positioning. On the other hand, it's a needless swipe at the current administration and at an entire younger generation of Democrats which always preferred Obama's affect concerning Israeli alliance politics over Clinton's.<br /><br />3) On Iran, much of the above related to Israeli policy applies, but I also wonder whether there's more of a case to be made that this is diplomatic jujitsu: to the extent that she signals through the international press that a Clinton administration would be much less willing to negotiate in good faith with Iran, she may allow the Obama administration marginal additional leverage to seal a deal with Iran in 2014-15. (She certainly has worked very hard on Iran issues since 2009, in a way which distinguishes her from the handful of hawkish Senate Democrats who have actively tried to scuttle even negotiations on any deal.)PFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00263515090451316188noreply@blogger.com