It's nice to see the gloves coming off a bit...

Obama just move up a little in my estimation of him and Clinton just moved down (McCain weighed in on the same issue, but didn't lose ground - it's hard to go lower than 'bottomed out.' :) )

From an AP story, via Yahoo! News -

Obama debate comments set off firestorm

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's offer to meet without precondition with leaders of renegade nations such as Cuba, North Korea and Iran touched off a war of words, with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton calling him naive and Obama linking her to President Bush's diplomacy.

{snip}

"I thought that was irresponsible and frankly naive," Clinton was quoted in an interview with the Quad-City Times that was posted on the Iowa newspaper's Web site on Tuesday.

The Obama camp responded by equating Clinton's position to that of George W. Bush's foreign policy (such as it is.)

I have to ask -

How can she say that meeting with the leaders of countries that we don't like is 'irresponsible'?

We are in the 7th year of an administration that refuses to interact with 'unfriendly' governments.

That attitude hasn't worked with Bush in office - America's influence and respect in the world is at perhaps at its lowest level in generations. If anything, *we* are viewed as something of a 'renegade nation.'

There's no reason to think that same attitude will work with somebody beside him in the office.


Quad City Times article, including audio links to interviews with both Obama and Clinton, here.