Surprise! Foreign Policy, Round 1, Goes to Obama

Barack Obama 1, Republicans 0—and on foreign policy, no less. Michael Tomasky marvels in the Guardian at Obama's recent clash with President Bush, who blasted Obama for proposing talks with Iran "without preconditions." Aren't Democrats supposed to be easy targets on foreign policy? Apparently not when they fire back boldly, bring up Bush's Iraq lies, and tell voters, "They're trying to scare you."

Tomasky isn't hot on negotiating with Iran without preconditions, but he still admires Obama's chutzpah. "Obama is doing something altogether different," Tomasky writes. "He is standing for an alternative vision of how America should operate in the world, and he is defending it tooth and nail." (More Barack Obama stories.)