Obama's Foreign Policy

Read Spencer Ackerman's analysis of Obama's foreign policy team. It's a thoughtful and comprehensive reminder that no one comes to the White House with all the relevant experience:

When considering any presidential hopeful's foreign-policy promises,
it's important to remember that what candidates say is, at best, an
imperfect guide to their actions in office. What proves to be a more
reliable indicator of presidential behavior is a candidate's roster of
advisers. (If the press had paid better attention, the country would
have seen through Bush's pitch about a humble foreign policy and
realized that many of his advisers, including Paul Wolfowitz and
Richard Perle, were conspiracy-minded warmongers.) Obama's
foreign-policy advisers come from diverse backgrounds. They are former
aides to Democratic mandarins like Tom Daschle and Lee Hamilton (Denis
McDonough and Ben Rhodes, respectively); veterans of the Clinton
administration's left flank (Tony Lake and Susan Rice); a human-rights
advocate who helped write the Army's and Marine Corps' much-lauded
counterinsurgency field manual (Sarah Sewall); a retired general who
helped run the air war during the invasion of Iraq (Scott Gration); and
a former journalist who revolutionized the study of U.S. foreign policy
(Samantha Power). Yet they form a committed, intellectually coherent,
and surprisingly united foreign-affairs team. (Shortly before this
piece went to press, Power resigned from the campaign after making an
intemperate remark to a reporter.)