2008 Democratic Campaign Advisor Analysis
If the Bush administration has taught me anything, it is how imporant it is to not only look at the candidate and his or her voting record, but to have a very close look at their advisors. How much of the Bush administration's policies could have been predicted, if people had taken a closer look at the history of...Donald 'Inivisible Subs' Rumsfeld, Dick 'Darth Vader' Cheney, or 'Bloody John' Negroponte?
If only we had looked closely to the George Bush's advisers in 2000 or 2004, the administration's policy would have been a lot clearer.
These are the key advisors to the three front runners. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
OBAMA
Lawrence Korb, Obama Campaign foreign policy adviser
- Author, Policy Paper: "Integrated Power: A National Security Strategy for the 21st Century".
Korb on Iraq:" It is essential that the military begin planning for a phased withdrawal from Iraq now so it can be safely completed within 10 to 12 months." Source
- Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Fellow and Director, National Security Studies
- Council on Foreign Relations, Council Vice President, Director of Studies, holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair, July 1998 to October 2002
- Director, Center for Public Policy Education
- Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Program, Brookings Institution
- Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
- Vice President, Corporate Operations, Raytheon Company
- member, Honorary Board, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
- serves, Military Advisor Committee for Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
Source...
Susan Rice, Obama Campaign foreign policy adviser
management consultant, McKinsey & Company, early 1990s
NSC, Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping, 1993-1995
NSC, Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director for African Affairs, 1995-1997
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, 1997-2001.
foreign policy adviser to John Kerry, 2004 presidential campaign
foreign policy adviser, 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy program, Brookings Institution
regular guest, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CBC, CNN, CNBC, BBC, NPR.
Source...
CLINTON
Richard Holbrooke, Clinton foreign policy advisor
Ambassador, Germany, 1993-1994
Ambassador, United Nations
foreign policy andvisor, John Kerry Presidential Campaign, 2004
foreign policy advisor, Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign, 2006
Source...
Position on Iraq: flipflopping. He was all for it when it started, and then came to see it was America's worst foreign policy blunder in a long time.
* Joe Wilson - the husband of Valerie Plame and former US ambassador, he is not officially a foreign policy advisor to the Clinton campaign. However, he does like her a lot,according to this article. I wouldn't be surprised, with his background, that he would turn up in some kind of foreign policy role.
EDWARDS
Derek Chollet, Edwards foreign policy advisor
- Senior Fellow, (CNAS)
- non-resident fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development Program
- adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University
- foreign policy adviser, John Edwards (D-N.C.)
* legislative staff
* 2004 Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign
- During the Clinton administration, he served in the:
- U.S. State Department
- Chief Speechwriter for Richard Holbrooke
- Special Adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott
- memoir writing & research, for Strobe Talbott, Warren Christopher, Richard Holbrook
- Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Fellow, American Academy in Berlin
- visiting scholar, adjunct professor George Washington University
- member, Council on Foreign Relations
- board member, Woodrow Wilson House, Truman National Security Project
- author, The Road to the Dayton Accords: A Study of American Statecraft
- Education: B.A. from Cornell, graduate studies at Columbia University
Source: http://www.cnas.org/en/cms/?121
Michael Signer, Edwards foreign policy advisor
- an attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of an international law firm.
FORMERLY:
- Deputy Counselor to Governor Mark Warner in Richmond, Virginia.
- Principal, Truman National Security Project
- founder, New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia, Committee for Progress on Race at UVA
- voter protection coordinator for Virginia, Democratic National Committee (DNC), Kerry campaign
- Associate Communications Director, Wesley Clark for President campaign in Little Rock, Arkansas
- Virginia State Director.
- Legislative Aide, Creigh Deeds of Virginia (D-Bath County)
- Associate Producer, hour-long documentary broadcast
- author, "Law" section of the New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge
Education: Ph.D., Political Science UC Berkeley,
J.D., UVA
magna cum laude, Princeton
Source...
Joe Trippi, Edwards campaign advisor
- Presidential Campaigns of Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean
- media producer, John Hall
- commentator, MSNBC
Source...
Peter Beinart, (born 1971) (hawkish)
Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council On Foreign Relations
Source: http://www.cfr.org/bios/12510/peter_beinart.html
- journalist and editor-at-large, The New Republic, having served as editor of TNR from November 1999 until March 2006.
Education:
- Buckingham Browne & Nichols School
- member, class of 1993, Yale University
- member, Yale Political Union
- Rhodes Scholarship, Oxford University, MA in international relations, 1995
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Beinart
Advisers:
Pro-Iraq War
Richard Holbrooke, Sandy Berger and Martin Indyk
Anti-Iraq War
Zbigniev Brzezinski, Ivo Daalder, Susan Rice, Lawrence Korb, (Madeline Albright)
Source...
Labels: ANALYSIS, ELECTIONS, USA
posted by MrK @ 4:15 AM
2 Comments:
I think that Barack Obama truly has the most Progressive advisors and will most likely have the most Progressive foreign policy. His main advisor, Lawrence Korb, backs a phased but relatively quick withdrawal, is an honorary member of an organisation that fights for the rights of gay and lesbian service people to serve (the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network). Dr. Susan Rice has connections to the Brookings Institute, which is an old enemy of Richard Nixon's.
Clinton is pretty predictable, with the narcissistic, slightly pompous Richard Holbrooke, who is very much a leftover of Bill Clinton's era. A Hillary Clinton administration could be very similar the Bill Clinton administrations.
However, Edwards surprised me, with no fewer than 2 people with connections to the hawkish Truman National Security Project. It wouldn't be a stretch that Edwards could continue the US's disastrous and costly, hawkish foreign policy. I have heard rumours that Edwards will not withdraw troops until 2013.
Whatever the imperfections, Obama/Kolb is what I would go with.
And please forgive me when stating the obvious, but I just have to say it out loud, for the record.
Obama just won in Iowa.
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