Hillary's Realism Versus Obama's Internationalism



"Naive" will be the buzzword of the evening. And it will be Hillary Rodham Clinton who wields that word like a stiletto.

Senator Obama must now come down from the lofty rhetorical heights and engage in a mundane mano-a-mano tonight with Senator Clinton on why a revamped Internationalism and not Clintonian Realism is the better foreign policy option for the United States of America to pursue into the second decade of the second millennium. We are presently trapped in a neoconservative purgatory.

Clearly Senator Clinton will be aggressive in this debate -- her last chance -- with an eye on Ohio, where polls say she is winning, and an eye on Texas, where polls say she is losing but must win. Clinton will come at Obama from the right, hard and fast, seeking to make him look like an intellectual lightweight, waiting for him to slip up. Yesterday's speech at George Washington University, where she stood, strategically, festooned with former Generals, signalled that maneuver.

No doubt Clinton will come at Obama with the question: Would you meet with Kim Jung-Il without conditions? One wonders if Senator Clinton -- or Senator Obama -- brings up the NY Philharmonic's historic trip to the peninsula. If Senator Hillary Clinton brings it up, it will be with the caveat "naive;" if Senator Obama brings it up first, it will be couched with an appeal to idealism and the best instincts of Americans. If Clinton doesn't hit Obama with the Kim Jung-il question, she will surely hit him with somesuch variation, probably involving the decline of Fidel Castro -- once dictator, now "Comrade" -- and the relative instability of Cuba.

What if Russia -- in concert with Venezuela, decided to flex its influence in the hemisphere, in Cuba? Would Senator Obama offer to speak with Raoul Castro, without preconditions? Clinton would have a perfect opportunity to spin an oratorical spiderweb construing Senator Obama under the category of wimp.

And if she does, it may be a fatal Scorpionic strike, one so brutal and calculated to rasp Obama, that his answer -- if too idealistic, and even if marginally victorious enough to carry the day -- may cost him Florida in the general election.

Of course, the Clinton machine, now blind to all but achieving their ambitions, would deny that that was there true intent. But the damage would be done. And McCain would be cleared to pick Florida Governor Crist, and have a guaranteed lock on Florida.

Obama should be warned to festina lente when answering any Hillary Rhetorical Scuds concerning Cuba.