US 08: Children of the Revolution

I suspect that a Democrat U.S. president in 2009 who turns out to have a similar foreign policy and anti-terrorism stance as a Republican president in 2008, will come as no surprise to the British and Australian national governments.
However, I suspect that it will come as a big surprise to many across the blogosphere and more than a few hopeful idealists around the world.

So it was good to see Jeff Sparrow of the Overland Magazine writing in Crikey yesterday remind us that Obama is no 60's peacenik:

But the Bush presidency hasn’t been the work of a single idiot. There’s plenty of smart people behind W., making decisions that by and large reflect the concerns of the US elite. Had a Democrat occupied the White House for the last two terms, US policy might have been sold better, but it’s doubtful that decisions have been very different.
Pick any of the Bush administration’s most heinous policies and you’ll implicate a Democrat. "Extraordinary rendition", for instance, was pioneered under Clinton, with that cuddly environmentalist Al Gore playing a leading role.

And Derek Shearer quoted in The Age observes:

"One of the interesting things about the Obama campaign is almost all of the policy advisers are former Clinton administration people — so many of my good friends are involved day to day," he said.

From the latest published Gallup poll of registered voters, I doubt whether it will come as any surprise to the American children of the 60's revolution, as they have currently settled down to what is basically a statistical tie between Democrat Obama at 45% and Republican McCain at 48% preference in their age group.

Update:

According to the New York Post today.

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.