Obama's greatest strengths: Imagination, Vision, and a real-world knowledge.

calteacherguy

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Fri Nov-09-07 08:27 PM
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Obama's greatest strengths: Imagination, Vision, and a real-world knowledge.

Edited on Fri Nov-09-07 09:26 PM by calteacherguy

Obama has often been criticized by those in the Clinton camp for being "naive" on foreign policy. I think they are confusing imagination and vision for naivety. And what they call Clinton's "experience" is nothing more than a failure of imagination on her part based in a blind adherence to conventional thinking. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Are we to be naive enough to believe that insight only applies to science? And what knowledge and "experience" are of the most worth in a Presidential candidate?

�I think,� he said, in that deep and measured voice of his, �that if you can tell people, �We have a president in the White House who still has a grandmother living in a hut on the shores of Lake Victoria and has a sister who�s half-Indonesian, married to a Chinese-Canadian,� then they�re going to think that he may have a better sense of what�s going on in our lives and in our country. And they�d be right.� http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04obama-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Perhaps it was this international heritage that led Obama to the correct position on Cuba. While Clinton continues to support a failed Bush administration policy, Obama has greater vision unhampered by the conventional political dogma which Clinton supporters mistake for "knowledge and experience."

"A democratic opening in Cuba is, and should be, the foremost objective of our policy," Obama wrote in the Herald. But while making that standard declaration, he also argued that "Cuban-American connections to family in Cuba are not only a basic right in humanitarian terms, but also our best tool for helping to foster the beginnings of grassroots democracy on the island." As a result, he said, "I will grant Cuban-Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island."http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1655373,00.html

Vision vs. Conventional thinking. That's the choice before us. It's what some Clinton supporters (and indeed, Clinton herself) try cleverly and incorrectly to frame as "experience" vs. "naivete." In the case of Cuba, the the "vision thing" is winning...

In response to Obama's statement, Hillary Clinton continued her recent attacks on his perceived foreign policy naivete, insisting that "until it is clear what type of policies might come with a new government, we cannot talk about changes in the U.S. policies toward Cuba." But by playing that safe card in Florida, Clinton may have allowed herself to be "outmaneuvered by Obama on this one," says one Cuban-American leader who asked not to be identified, pointing to a recent Florida International University poll showing that more than 55% of Cuban-Americans in Miami favor unrestricted travel to Cuba.

That survey, say academics like Rafael Lima, a University of Miami communications professor and the son of an exile once imprisoned by Castro, reflects the growing number of younger, more moderate Cuban-American voters in South Florida � and the waning clout of the older, more conservative generation. Unlike their elders, the younger generation believes that the 45-year-old economic embargo against Cuba has utterly failed to dislodge its communist leader. As a result, Obama could now galvanize those moderates, who Lima says "have been waiting for a viable presidential candidate to wave their banner for once."http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1655373,00.html

President Carter�s National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brezinski understands the choice before us is not just about Cuba, but the need at this transformative time in human history, at the dawn of the new millennium, for a transformative change in American foreign policy which has the imagination and wisdom to see beyond conventional thinking.

��The choice that you will be making will define America�s role in a historically new era. We have elections every four years, but only once in a while is a new president facing the opportunity to shape a new sense of direction for America,� explained Brezinski.

The national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter continued, �There is a need for a fundamental rethinking of how we conduct world affairs, and Obama seems to me to have both the guts and the intelligence to address that issue and to change the nature of America�s relationship with the world.'�http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/12/foreign-policy-expert-stumps-for-obama/

Einstein was right. Imagination is more important than knowledge (and no I'm not conceding Obama doesn't have "knowledge"). But what kind of knowledge and imagination do we want the next President to have?

Brzezinski called Mrs. Clinton�s foreign policy �very conventional.�

�I don�t think the country needs to go back to what we had eight years ago,� Mr. Brzezinski said.

He also weighed in on the dispute over Mr. Obama�s statement that he would meet unconditionally with Venezuelan, Iranian and Syrian leaders, which Mrs. Clinton called �na�ve.�

�What�s the hang-up about negotiating with the Syrians or with the Iranians?'� Brzezinksi said. �What it in effect means'� is �that you only talk to people who agree with you.'�

Howard Wolfson, the Clinton campaign�s communication director, had no comment. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/brzezinski-offers-support-for-obama/

Any comments?

(edited to tidy up all those block quotes)