Obama Russia and the G8

We all know that John McCain wants to give Russia a swift boot out of the G8. He said so. 

This writer argues the same -- that Obama should stand up to Russia. I believe Obama would stand up to Russia. But what people don't get is it's all about language -- how do you communicate your message. 

The language of yesterday is naming countries the "axis of evil." That's not going to accomplish anything. We learn that on the school yard, or we are supposed to anyway.  

The U.S. can only lead by example. It can't go around changing every country's regime. Iraq has proven that. 

McCain's Retro Foreign Policy

It's true that sometimes retro is hip, but not when it comes to McCain's foreign policy. He talks freely about chucking Russia out of the G8 and bombing Iran or sending them more cigarettes, or referring to Czechoslovakia.

NPR: John McCain often joked that when he looked into former Russian President Vladimir Putin's soul, he didn't see — as President Bush did — a man he could do business with, but rather an ex-KGB officer consolidating power.

"It's a KGB-like operation," McCain said of Putin's approach, "gradual, steady, persistent, successful."

Though Russia has a new president, Dmitry Medvedev, McCain has kept up his tough line, accusing the Russian government of silencing political dissent at home, using energy as a weapon abroad and launching a cyber war against Estonia.

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said in a speech in Los Angeles in March that NATO should not stand for such actions, nor should the Group of Eight.

"We should start by ensuring the G-8 — the group of eight highly industrialized states — becomes again a club of leading market democracies," McCain said. "It should include Brazil and India, but exclude Russia."

.....

McCain has talked about kicking Russia out of the G-8 for several years now. Susan Rice, a top foreign policy adviser to Democrat Barack Obama, says speeches like that show McCain is stuck in a Cold War mind-set, trying to demonize Russia.

"John McCain really has a static — I would even argue retro — mid-late 20th century national security orientation, which is ill suited to the challenges we face," Rice said, adding that she sees some contradictions within the McCain campaign.

That retro-ness doesn't seem to be flying with the younger generation either:

CNN: At a town hall meeting in Ohio this month, a student told McCain that Republicans were a dying breed on his campus.

"I understand the challenge I have, and I understand that this election is really all about the people of your generation," McCain said.

Many young Republicans said Sen. Barack Obama, the 46-year-old junior senator from Illinois, is inspiring voters their age, but McCain, the 71-year-old Arizona senator who has been in office since the early '80s, is not.

Eric Pearlmutter, a member of the Young Republicans at the University of Southern California, said the roaring enthusiasm that follows Obama is missing among conservatives his age.

"We try to get people out to our college Republican meetings, but ... we can't seem to draw the same kind of vocal support," he said.

And when is McCain, who is speaking right now about the dangers of smoking at the Livestrong event, going to stop saying "my friends." It's just not right.

McCain Wants to Throw Russia Out of G8

Obama doesn't. Stark differences in foreign policy, folks. The continuation of the Bush mindset of U.S. domination from McCain, who doesn't have a progressive thought in his mind. McCain is already thinking about who the U.S. can dominate, cutting off Russia, while Obama is considering how best to be a world citizen to end nuclear proliferation. Why would we want to poke at Russia? Good grief. 

WaPo: "It would be a mistake," Obama told CNN in an interview when asked about McCain's proposal. CNN on Saturday released excerpts from the interview that will air on Sunday.

"Look, if we're going to do something about nuclear proliferation, just to take one issue that I think is as important as any on the list, we've got to have Russia involved," the Illinois senator said.

"The amount of loose nuclear material that is floating around in the former Soviet Union, the amount of technical know-how that is in countries that used to be behind the Iron Curtain, without Russia's cooperation, our efforts in that on that front will be greatly weakened."