It’s worth mentioning that party delegates don’t really have a say in Obama’s filling of these positions. What AG and I found is enthusiasm for Biden as Obama’s VP pick precisely because of his foreign policy credentials, but some other names weren’t far behind. This North Carolina delegate mentioned two Republicans, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as two people who could make good advisors. But those two must be tainted goods for many Democrats because they were architects for the Iraq War, and the North Carolina delegate mentions that Powell started to step down when the Iraq War went into effect. For many delegates, doing things differently would mean reaching across the bi-partisan aisle to incorporate Republicans into foreign policy. For other delegates, doing things differently means turning the clock back to the Clinton administration. This delegate suggests Bill Richardson, who was a long term U.N. ambassador under Clinton and would be fantastic. But he hoped Obama wouldn’t rely too much on foreign policy workers from the past. Another perspective came from this delegate from Florida who is 77 years old and a Korean War veteran and that guided his perspective. He says he knows what war means and he’d like to see a more subdued type of foreign policy that diplomatically gets the job done without any aggressive acts.
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