Today President Obama will be giving his speech on foreign
policy to the United Nations General Assembly. Having good relations with
countries abroad is extremely important in the globalizing world we living in
today. During the presidential campaign,
I have been seeing articles and news sources commenting on President Obama’s
need to increase his foreign policy efforts in order to gain more support. The video attached below provided by the Wall Street Journal, shows reported Neil
King discussing the importance of today’s speech and Obama’s objectives for
it. This speech will be Obama’s last
foreign policy address until the elections.
For you, where does the importance of foreign policy stand in this
presidential election?
I agree with Neil King when he says that in the grand scheme of things, foreign policy is quite low on the lists of important issues for most voters. There is so much talk and hype about what the candidates will do with the economy here at home, that foreign policy has seem to take a back seat at the moment. King also mentions that Obama is currently ahead of Romney in foreign policy approval ratings. Therfore, for Obama, this speech will probably be more of a reaffirmation of his policies, rather than a platform to seek out new voters, all in attempt to maintain his current approval ratings against Romney.
ReplyDeleteI second what Alex said, I don't think a lot of people are overly concerned with foreign policy. As of February 2011 only 30% of Americans have a passport (including passport cards/enhanced licenses) according to Forbes. I can understand that as most Americans have not and do not plan on leaving the country it may be hard for some of them to think in global terms. As was mentioned in a previous blog entry, Israel and Iran are butting heads and other countries have publicly backed Israel. This is the most pressing issue in my mind so it will be interesting to see what Obama has to say in this regard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with saying that plans for our economy is the biggest concern for most people right now and it probably should be. But foreign policy is also important as we have a lot of enemies as it is and we would like to have as few as possible obviously. There is a lot more to foreign policy than just traveling and personally, I would like to have as few troops as possible out east but that is not gonna happen it seems like. But, I do agree that at this point I want to get our economy fixed first and foremost so foreign policy is a secondary concern at this point. It is all opinion though as some people may not care about our economy...somehow.
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