Senator Obama’s campaign has amended some of what it sent my way on his experience with Europe and with European leaders.
Before I post that, I should add that I’m not absolutely sure that having a light slate on Europe is such a bad thing — as long as it comes packaged with a commitment to get to know Europe well enough to do the hard slogging ahead on any number of major global challenges. Sometimes, those with too much experience in any area get bogged down in the weeds. And those with less experience can possibly move the lines around in more creative ways. But we need to see some evidence of that kind of potential wizardry if we are to overlook some deficits in on the ground experience (or should it be in the air?)
I’m hoping that Senator Obama — who has been right on target in US-Cuba relations and where they might go — might respond by talking more about opportunities to leapfrog out of today’s mess into a different arena of global institutional, bi-national and multinational arrangements. I still feel that Europe and Japan need to be brought into a re-energized, re-organized global structure — but that we need to find places to build in Russia, China, Iran, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Indonesia — and other of the world’s major population and power centers.
But the new news is that Barack Obama has. . .
met with PM Blair three times, and Sarkozy once (who was Minister of the Interior at the time)
Senator Obama and Senator Lugar stopped in London on the CODEL to Eastern Europe and met with PM Blair
Thanks much to Senator Obama’s campaign staff for sharing this information — and please note that my information posted before about Senator Obama meeting PM Tony Blair on the way back from Moscow should now be replaced by the note above that he met Blair on the way to Russia and Ukraine.
More later.
— Steve Clemons
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