Does living overseas from age 6 to 10 give one foreign policy experience?

[rinsd]

Poll question: Does living overseas from age 6 to 10 give one foreign policy experience?

[Mz Pip]

1. I lived in Nebraska

when I was a kid. It hardly makes me any kind of expert on farm policies.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[PurityOfEssence]

2. Yes, but not domestic policy experience.

Even at these ages, being in a foreign land is very illuminating. That should go in the plus column. How many karma points one should get for this is another matter.

[Donnachaidh]

3. I cannot imagine a 6 year old managing a border dispute.

Heck, some six year olds still don't know how to share. Our own president is proof of that. :sarcasm:

[freesqueeze]

4. Strangely enough, yes...

it would be great for a president to have an understanding of other cultures. If our current president knew the dynamics between sunni and shia, we wouldn't be in Iraq.

Just who might you be refering to?

[ElizabethDC]

5. Important in helping you to understand some things about life in other countries? Yes.

Foreign *policy* experience of the kind a president would need? On it's own, no.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jobycom]

7. Does living in America give me foreign policy experience in Turkmenistan?

I mean, it certainly helps, but by itself it doesn't.

[Ethelk2044]

8. The 10 years of Obama Experience includes This

Senate Committees in the 110th Congress:
- Committee on Foreign Relations

- Subcommittee on African Affairs

- Subcommittee on International Economic Policy

- Subcommittee on Asians and Pacific Affairs

- Committee on Veterans' Affairs

- Committee on Healthy, Education, Labor & Pensions

- Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs

Practical, Progressive Thinking on the Issues: In 2002, Barack Obama publicly opposed the Iraq War, and continues to call for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. He urges universal health care, and if elected president, promises implementation by the end of his first term.
Barack Obama's voting record and stances as US Senator and Illinois State Senator reflect a "practical, common sense progressive" thinker who emphasizes increased support for teachers, college affordability, and restoration of meaningful federal support of veterans. Obama opposes privatization of Social Security.

Prior Experience: Barack Obama served 7 years as an Illinois State Senator, resigning to assume US Senate responsibilities. He also worked as a community organizer and a civil rights attorney. The Senator is a Senior Lecturer in Constitutional Law at University of Chicago Law School.
After law school, he aggressively organized one of the largest voter registration drives in Chicago history to help Bill Clinton's 1992 election.

On December 22, 2006, President Bush signed into law Senator Obama's “Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act

http://usforeignpolicy.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm ...

http://usforeignpolicy.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm ... /

http://usforeignpolicy.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm ...

[rinsd]

So did his mentor Joe Lieberamn help him pick which committees to sit on?

[jefferson_dem]

25. Did Hillary free him up from their video-game-a-thon long enough to mentor Obama?

Perhaps his seat could be kept warm and cozy with one of the other esteemed co-sponsors - Santorum or Brownback...

http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=233151

[rep the dems]

26. Didn't your candidate vote with Joe Lieberman on the most important

vote in years?

[sandnsea]

11. Don't forget Lubar-Obama

Nonproliferation, loose nukes bill.

http://www.globalsolutions.org/in_the_beltway/lugar_obama_bill_seeks_secure_weapons

[illinoisprogressive]

9. alot more than Borrowing your husband's resume and calling it your experience.

[bonito]

10. BIG TIME n/t

[ElizabethDC]

12. I'd be interesting to know how the people who voted "yes" would define foreign *policy*

I mean, I've lived abroad, but I wouldn't by any strech of the imagination pretend that I have foreign policy experience because of that!

[rinsd]

13. I think living abroad is great.

To claim it gives you special insight on foreign policy is another matter

[sandnsea]

14. Experience to create foreign policy

I would say it would inform one's point of view and decisions. Kerry talked about how his experiences in Germany as a child, helped shape some of his world views.

[rinsd]

16. So Obama can claim ages 6 to 10 but Hillary can't claim 8 years as first lady?

[sandnsea]

18. It's your fight

You guys want to start it, as usual, we'll go ahead and finish it.

[ElizabethDC]

21. self-delete, wrong place

[ElizabethDC]

17. See, I see foreign policy experience as experience in *creating* foreign policy

or experiene dealing directly with foreign policy. I would call Obama's and Kerry's childhood experiences foreign experiences but not foreign *policy* experience, but I guess it all depends on how you define it. (Obviously, I'm not saying they don't have foreign policy experience, because they both do, I'm just referring to the childhood experiences.)

[sandnsea]

19. So they all have foreign policy experience

If Obama's background doesn't count, neither does Hillary's. Very simple.

[ElizabethDC]

22. Did I ever say that one of them didn't have foreign policy experience?

No, because they all do, although to varying degrees.

And did I say that Obama's background didn't count? I think that living abroad is very important in shaping one's world view, and I'm sure it's a very important part of who he is. Would I call it foreign policy experience? Not unless he was over there doing something that relates to foreign policy.

[sandnsea]

23. It's just another phony trumped up "issue"

Nobody has said Obama should be elected because he lived in a foreign country any more than anybody has said we should be electing First Ladies. But since some people like to play dirty politics, this is what it comes to. Obama has had life experiences the would inform his foreign policy, just as Hillary has. There isn't thing in the world wrong with interpreting the OP as such, except for people who prefer the potshots to the actual policy.

[ElizabethDC]

24. Indeed, indeed. Right you are.

I've not seen anyone claim that Obama should be elected because he lived in a foreign country, I was just interested how people were defining foreign policy experience for the sake of the question (and I have a hunch that it has to do with which candidate oen favors).

[OHdem10]

15. Meow---Meow -----Meow

[rucky]

20. What if we're attacked by dodgeballs?

who would you want in the oval office?

[NativeTexan]

27. I DO know that growing up in Texas and taking vacations.......

.....at the true family compound in MAINE does NOT make you anything NEAR a Texan!! Especially when you are an idiot and an embarrassment.

[rekoveringamerikan]

28. damn, if it does

then vote for me. 9 years now living O/S as an adult. i have felt the pain, literally and figuratively, of what the current admin has done to the rep of amerika. we'd at least have lots more fun if i was in charge.

[malikstein]

29. I lived in Germany from 6 to 10.

Of course, it didn't give me any foreign policy experience, but it left a lasting impression and a perspective that I find rare among my contemporaries who have never lived outside the US.