Russia, Georgia, Poland, Nukes, and Presidential Politics

The presidential candidates have spent some time this week responding to the crisis in Georgia and learning all about a place called South Ossetia. The proverbial 3am call came, not to Barack Obama or John McCain, but to President George Bush. But the candidates let Americans know what they would do or say if they had been sleeping in the White House when that call came.  McCain's campaign says that Obama responded too softly, not taking seriously enough Russia's aggression and threats.  Obama's campaign says that McCain's response was overblown, lacking the finesse required for the world of geopolitics.

Of course, it is George Bush who is president and who had to act, which he did swiftly and with more force than Barack Obama's reaction indicated but with less bluster than John McCain's reaction suggested.  In fact, there has been relatively little criticism so far of the way the President and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice have handled Russia's movement into Georgia . . . could that mean that both candidates actually agree with how the United States is handling this situation so far? Could it be that Americans all agree that what is going on has great geopolitical importance and that what's happening to the people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and Georgia is not a good thing and that all of this rises above campaign politics? A girl can dream.

Oil pipelines that pass through Georgia and do not pass through Russia or Iran are at issue here. Preservation of former-USSR democracies are at issue here. A resurgence of the old USSR is at issue here. Ethnic cleansing is at issue here. Poland and the US missle shield are at issue here. Iran's nuclear capabilities are at issue here. Israel's survival is even at issue here. Russia has made clear that it matters again. How would a President Obama handle this? How would a President McCain handle this?

Last night CNN will rebroadcast the season's first presidential forum involving only Obama and McCain. They appeared at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church on Saturday and answered interesting questions about character and leadership (surprisingly few about religion or even typically evangelical issues) that reveal a bit about how each would handle US foreign policy and international crises. The candidates appeared in the same 2-hour period, but they took questions from Warren separately.