When it comes to foreign affairs, Biden and his advisers are nonideological and mainly transactional. In Obama’s situation room, he sometimes urged restraint, according to people who were there, and sometimes was hawkish. Rather than being associated with a particular school of statecraft or a signature policy accomplishment, Biden is known for his intimacy with world leaders.
Tasked by Obama to end the Iraq War, Biden supported Nouri El-Maliki, the leader he knew, and rescued the Iraqi prime minister’s career even though it ended up fracturing the country. When Maliki narrowly lost in 2010, Biden didn’t give Iraqi political parties time to broker a new coalition. With Biden’s endorsement, Maliki gained a second term; he grew more authoritarian, which is now widely believed to have led to the rise of ISIS. Biden ignored experts who were skeptical of Maliki and preferred to glad-hand. “He came to deal with Iraqi politicians like local political kingpins in Delaware or Pennsylvania,” said Robert Ford, who was deputy ambassador in Baghdad from 2008 to 2010.
Biden’s foreign policy is a blank slate, onto which often-conflicted advisers from the national-security establishment will project actual policies.
There is no Biden Doctrine. “He’s not a guy who knows history. He’s not a guy who is intellectually curious,” said Emma Sky, who advised the U.S. military in Iraq. “It’s all about personal relationships.” Those close bonds may cloud his judgment. He has expressed “love” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even after he had defied the Obama administration and stood by the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as he assaulted protesters. In effect, Biden’s foreign policy is a blank slate, onto which often-conflicted advisers from the traditional national-security establishment will project actual policies.
If “personnel is policy,” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren likes to say, we can learn a lot about Biden from his team. In addition to Blinken, advisers include Nicholas Burns (The Cohen Group), Kurt Campbell (The Asia Group), Tom Donilon (BlackRock Investment Institute), Wendy Sherman (Albright Stonebridge Group), Julianne Smith (WestExec Advisors), and Jake Sullivan (Macro Advisory Partners). They rarely discuss their connections to corporate power, defense contactors, private equity, and hedge funds, let alone disclose them.
I asked a Biden spokesperson if the campaign would commit to more transparency and expand the Obama-era pledge to strategic consultants. “There’s a difference between consulting and lobbying,” he told me. “There’s a pretty strong line there … So, presumably we don’t have a ban on people who were consultants at one time or another, since I’m one myself.”
Democrats, it's too soon to cheer Trump's defeat
Opinion by Arick Wierson and Bradley Honan
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/09/opin...mps-political-demise-wierson-honan/index.html
How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich
https://prospect.org/world/how-biden-foreign-policy-team-got-rich/
I've seen way more pieces warning Democrats about getting complacent than I've seen complacent Democrats.
This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.
This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.
This. Trump has lost some of his support. My biggest worry at this point is the EC. Biden could win the popular vote by 5-6% and still lose the EC narrowly. My 2nd biggest worry is Trump's racist campaign tactics working on enough fence sitting white suburbanites in states like NC, AZ, PA and WI. My 3rd biggest worry is a Biden health event.
I'd add "exaggerated Biden scandal" to this list akin to Hillary's e-mails.
I also worry about the angry/scared white vote. I hope I am wrong, but I am concerned at the end of the day, they’ll still side with Trump because they’re scared about black people rioting their towns and taking away their police.
I definitely think a lot of white people default to “they’re going to take my stuff.” But that happens when the economy is doing well enough that they have the luxury to have irrational fears. Right now white people are scared about their lives and their jobs and if it’s safe to put their children in school. And many white people are vulnerable enough to understand how others are vulnerable all the time because society is structured to keep them that way.
I've seen way more pieces warning Democrats about getting complacent than I've seen complacent Democrats.
How many of each have you seen?
I’d estimate about a dozen “don’t get cocky kid” articles and no Dems saying this is a done deal.
I've seen way more pieces warning Democrats about getting complacent than I've seen complacent Democrats.
I’d estimate about a dozen “don’t get cocky kid” articles and no Dems saying this is a done deal.
Is it fair to say that BLM is a Marxist organization hell bent on destroying this country? Thereby invalidating all protests in which someone carries a BLM banner?
This is the level of discourse at which a disappointing segment of our parents’ peers engage.