I'm shocked

[MannyIsGod]

AHF hasn't commented on this. Shocked I tell you.

Scowcroft Advising Obama

CNN reports that President-elect Obama "is getting foreign policy advice from an unlikely source: Republican Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser in the first Bush administration."

"Two sources familiar with the conversations confirm to CNN that Obama reached out to Scowcroft for phone chats even before he ran for president, and the back-and-forth has continued in recent days as the president-elect assembles his Cabinet."

"Scowcroft is very close to current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is rumored to be in the running to stay in the Cabinet for at least an interim period at the start of the new Obama administration."

[boutons_]

Talking to all these right-wingers is sorta troubling, but his walking, not his talking, is how to judge Obama, what he actually does.

Much better than dubya listening, if he did, to the agenda-driven ideological that head presented pre-digested for dubya.

[doobs]

He worked for George H. W. Bush. This doesn't surprise me in the least. People on the left and the right seem to forget that there has been a reordering of foreign policy in the two parties over the last decade or two. The Republicans used to be split between interventionist Realists and isolationist Realists, and the Democrats used to be split between interventionist idealists and isolationist idealists.

Neocons--who are extreme interventionist idealists--used to be Democrats but switched because of their dissatisfaction with the isolationist wing of the party. The neocons saw opportunity to ally themselves with the Republican Party, and have been very successful in establishing their strength. Thus, interventionist Realists and neocons have forged an uncomfortable partnership in controlling the foreign policy of the Bush Administration.

Some Realists, particularly those less willing to intervene militarily in world affairs--like Powell and Scowcroft--really dislike their diminished status in the party. If the Democrats can effectively marginalize their isolationist idealist wing, they can make serious inroads to steal Republican Realists.