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We Should Talk to Our Enemies.(Cover Story; INTERNATIONAL)

Article from: Newsweek Article date: November 03, 2008 Author: Burns, Nicholas

One of the sharpest and most telling differences on foreign policy between Barack Obama and John McCain is whether the United States should talk to difficult and disreputable leaders like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. In each of the three presidential debates, McCain belittled Obama as naive for arguing that America should be willing to negotiate with such adversaries. In the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin went even further, accusing Obama of "bad judgment -- that is dangerous," an ironic charge given her own very modest foreign-policy credentials.

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JFK Negotiated (and Got His Butt Kicked)

Posted May 22, 08 12:55 PM CDT in Politics 

JFK Negotiated (and Got His Butt Kicked)
Source: Magnum Photos

(Newser) – On the campaign trail, Barack Obama often invokes a JFK maxim—"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate"—to back up his commitment to talk to America's enemies. But in a Times op-ed, two writers observe that Kennedy learned a tough lesson when negotiating with Nikita Khrushchev: Meeting with the enemy gives him the opportunity to kick you.

"He beat the hell out of me," JFK told a reporter after the 1961 Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting in Vienna. The Soviet premier left the summit emboldened—he dismissed the youthful president as “too intelligent and too weak”—and by next spring had deployed missiles to Cuba, beginning the most dangerous episode of the Cold War. For the authors, JFK should remind Obama that negotiation, even by a smart and eloquent president, can be "self-destructive."

Source: New York Times

More about:  Barack Obama • John F. Kennedy • Cold War • appeasement • negotiation • Cuban Missile Crisis

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OPINION

 Goldwater Vs. JFK Echoes in '08 

Obama vs. McCain recalls race that never happened in '64

Salon Salon May 21, 08 12:19 PM CDT
(Newser) - The coming Obama/McCain matchup is an echo of another presidential bout, David Talbot writes for Salon —one that never happened between JFK and Barry Goldwater in 1964. Then as now, a young idealist takes on a seasoned ex-soldier over negotiation with hostile governments, to debate a fundamental question of whether it is more important to project understanding or strength to the world. More »

More about:  Barack Obama • John McCain • Obama 2008 • McCain 2008 • presidential election • assassination • John F. Kennedy • appeasement • Barry Goldwater

Kennedy: 9/11, Obama Inspired Me to Seek Senate Seat

Campaign work pushed hopeful towards politics

Associated Press Associated Press Dec 27, 08 3:17 AM CST
(Newser) - The terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and her work for Barack Obama's campaign helped push Caroline Kennedy towards a career in politics, the Senate hopeful tells the AP. Kennedy credited her mother with giving her the courage to seek the job, and said she hopes she will be able to embody some of the "sense of possibility" summoned by her father, John F. Kennedy. More »

More about:  Barack Obama • Senate • New York • Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg • John F. Kennedy • political appointee • Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

OPINION

 Send 
 Princess 
 Caroline 
 to DC 

Senate seat the perfect ending to her 'fairy tale'

Washington Post Washington Post Dec 9, 08 12:54 PM CST
(Newser) - Sure, you can make a case against it, but Caroline Kennedy becoming a senator would be the perfect ending to a "modern fairy tale," Ruth Marcus writes in the Washington Post . Putting aside her tendency to "recoil from political dynasties," Marcus points out that there are plenty of politicians who didn't exactly pay their dues—does Jesse Ventura ring a bell? More »

More about:  Barack Obama • Hillary Clinton • New York • Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg • John F. Kennedy • US Senate • Edward M. Kennedy


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