Former Vice President Dick Cheney tonight joins a chorus of critics who say President Barack Obama is taking way too long to decide whether to send another 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Cheney, no fan of any of the current administration’s foreign policy initiatives, prodded the White House to fulfill the president’s promise to give the U.S. armed  forces a clear mission in Afghanistan and to do it now.

“It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise. The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger, ” Cheney said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington think-tank.

“Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission,” Cheney said.

Cheney also refuted what he said was a complaint by White House chief of staff  Rahm Emanuel that “the Obama administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.”

“The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them,” Cheney said.

“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Obama said he could reach a decision on a new strategy before the outcome of Afghanistan’s presidential run-off on Nov. 7 And he pushed back against  critics who accuse him of vacillating.

“We are going to take the time to get this right,” Obama told MSNBC.

“We’re not going to drag it out because there is a sense that the sooner we get a sound approach in place and personnel in place, the better off we’re going to be. But we also want to make sure that we don’t put resources ahead of strategy.”

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Photo credit:Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Cheney speaking on national security in May)

We asked Senator Charles Grassley to grade President Barack Obama's performance (close your ears Sasha and Malia) and the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee was a bit of a tough schoolmaster.

"He's still learning an awful lot," Grassley said at a Reuters Washington Summit.

But Obama gets a D on foreign policy, a C on domestic policy, and an F on trade (ouch!)

We asked him to explain the grading.

"If you go to class, college, and you don't do anything you get an F," Grassley said on trade. He noted that Obama has put a 35 percent duty on tires from China, which the senator believed was not a good idea, but he would have been willing to overlook that if the president was pushing forward on trade agreements.

And why the D on foreign policy?

"He's taken a month to decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan," Grassley said.

"And what sort of a signal is that sending around the world when the commander-in-chief of the biggest economy and the biggest military in the world, the policeman for the world, is wondering whether or not he wants to back up the general he appointed to study it, and something that worked in Iraq, and he's not making up his mind," Grassley said.

http://www.reuters.com/summit/Washington09

Photo credit: Reuters/Johnathan Ernst (Grassley at Reuters Washington Summit)

With jazz great Herbie Hancock and Congressman John Lewis at her side, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a State Department ceremony on Thursday to mark the departure of a cultural delegation to India to commemorate civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s trip there 50 years ago.

King and his wife, Coretta, traveled to India in 1959 to study the life and works of India’s legendary nonviolent independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. King adopted many of Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence to the U.S. civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
 
Clinton said she was “jealous” of the trip by the delegation, which includes Hancock, civil rights veteran Lewis, King’s son, Martin Luther King III, and Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus. The group will travel to New Delhi and other sites associated with Gandhi.

Hancock said the philosophy of cooperation, communication and harmony espoused by King and Gandhi “are also essential elements of every jazz band.”

Clinton, meanwhile, said the delegation was “exactly what the State Department should be doing even more of.”

“Jazz is not just about music,” the newly installed diplomat said. “As secretary of state, I’m improvising every day.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Tim Parker (Herbie Hancock and trumpeter Roy Hargrove play at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis on Sept. 28, 2001)

WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton was not in the room, but his presence was certainly felt at Hillary Clinton’s long confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

As the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considered her nomination to be Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, Republicans on the  panel raised the potentially thorny subject of the former president’s charity, which has received donations from several nations including the governments of Saudi Arabia and Norway.

They questioned whether appropriate steps had been taken to avoid possible foreign policy conflicts if Sen. Clinton, of New York, is confirmed.

“I think a lot of folks legitimately share these concerns across the spectrum, from the New York Times to Senator Lugar, who submitted some questions about it to me,” Louisiana Republican David Vitter said.

Richard Lugar of Indiana, the panel’s senior Republican, had raised the issue earlier in the hearing.  Clinton gave a lengthy response to Vitter and offered to go into even more detail. But Vitter was concerned about running out of time.

“Mr. Chairman, I have no objection listening to this, but I’d like it not to come out of my time, because I’d like to pursue these questions,” Vitter said.

“Well, I guess it’s fair to say that if you ask a question, you deserve an answer, and the answer traditionally comes out of the time of the senator,” committee Chairman John Kerry of Massachusetts responded.

Later, when Virginia Democrat James Webb finally greeted Clinton, he noted that he had the pleasure of having sat through the entire day-long hearing. “I’m so far down the food chain that I had to wait until 3 o’clock this afternoon to ask my questions,” the freshman senator said.

 The hearing began at 9:30 a.m.

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Clinton with daughter Chelsea in background)

With the images of death and destruction in Mumbai last week fresh in everyone’s minds, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is set on Monday to name his national security team. 
 
At a 10:40 EST (1540 GMT) news conference in Chicago, Obama is expected to name former rival Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state and nominate Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stay on in that role. In addition he is expected to name Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary, Eric Holder as attorney general and adviser Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations.
    
After a series of three straight news conferences last week focused on the ailing U.S. economy, Obama will switch gears today as he will likely face questions about India and Pakistan and his proposed policies toward the two nuclear-armed nations.     
    
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to India on Wednesday. She has been in contact with the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in recent days to ease tensions between the states.

    
Indian investigators said the militants who attacked Mumbai underwent months of commando training in Pakistan, raising tensions between the neighboring nations as recriminations mounted in India. 

In an interview with the Financial Times , Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for the Mumbai attacks, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region.
    
In economic news back home, stocks appeared set to fall after poor manufacturing figures from China and a raft of economic data expected in the U.S. this week.

Though retailers reported a solid start to holiday shopping with consumers spending more on bargains over the Thanksgiving weekend, overall holiday sales are likely to be worse than thought.

The Big Three U.S. automakers will try a second time this week to pursuade Congress to give them $25 billion to rescue their struggling industry. The Financial Times reported that GM, which owns Saab, and Volvo-owner Ford had approached Sweden’s government for financial help.

WASHINGTON - The G20 leaders found themselves in a predicament faced by many a family when trying to assemble everyone in one place at one time for a snapshot. Someone inevitably spoils the first take.

The leaders of the advanced and developing countries gathered in Washington on Saturday to talk about the global financial crisis started the day with a group photo.

They filed in to the National Building Museum and lined up smiling for the cameras to capture their bonding.

Then it was time to leave and head into the first meeting to discuss the world’s worst financial meltdown in decades and search for solutions.

But as they stepped off the stage confusion reigned, and they all turned back for another shot.

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez had arrived late and missed the first photo.

So they all smiled politely once again, now the group was complete, for a quick second take.

An apologetic Fernandez turned to her neighbors and said “gracias.”

Photo credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

It’s no surprise that Michelle Obama will be rooting for her husband, Barack Obama, when the Democratic presidential candidate squares off against Republican John McCain in their final debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York tonight.

What is a little startling, however, is that sitting right next to her will be Lilibet Hagel, the wife of Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel.

The Obama campaign said Lilibet Hagel, a Republican who has endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate, will attend the debate as Michelle Obama’s “special guest.”

Sen. Hagel, who considered running for president himself, is sometimes mentioned as a possible Republican secretary of state, though it would seem unlikely — but not inconceivable — that Obama might pick him for a Cabinet spot if the Democrat wins.

The decision to seat Hagel’s wife next to Michelle Obama may be designed to appeal to Republicans and independents as the U.S. presidential race enters its final three weeks.

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- - Photo credit: Reuters/Ali Jarekji (Obama stands next to Hagel during a visit to Amman, Jordan in July 2008)

Sarah Palin has energized the Republican base since John McCain picked her as his vice-presidential running mate, but one prominent Republican is not impressed.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican, is questioning whether Palin has enough foreign-policy experience to serve as the country’s second-in-command. “She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,” he added. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.”

A conservative Vietnam War veteran and outspoken critic of the Iraq War, Hagel has cultivated a reputation as somebody unafraid to buck his party.

Hagel traveled with Democratic candidate Barack Obama to Afghanistan in July and was mentioned as a possible Obama running mate. He had kind words for Obama’s eventual pick, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden.

“An Obama-Biden ticket is a very impressive and strong team,” Hagel said in August.

photo: REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (Obama and Hagel visit Amman, Jordan in July 2008)

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said on Wednesday she would be ready to deal with foreign policy if she and John McCain win the White House and offered to play “stump the candidate” to test herself on specific policy issues.

In their first joint “town hall meeting” with Palin taking questions from voters, an audience member asked Palin to dispel concerns that she lacked foreign policy experience. She responded by saying she expected critics to look for things to attack. “I think because I’m a Washington outsider that opponents are going to be looking for a whole lot of things that they can criticize,” she said.

“As for foreign policy, you know, I think that I am prepared and I know that on Jan. 20, if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice president, certainly we’ll be ready,” Palin said.

“I’ll be ready, I have that confidence,” she said. “If you want specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead and you can ask me, you can even play ’stump the candidate’ if you want to, but we are ready to serve.”

The crowd applauded and McCain stepped in to highlight Palin’s experience dealing with energy issues in Alaska, command of the Alaska National Guard, and her son’s deployment to Iraq.

“I think she understands national security challenges and we’ve had many conversations, and I … am convinced she understands the challenges this nation faces,” McCain said. 

About an hour had passed at that point — roughly the time allotted for the campaign event — and McCain opted not to take any more questions. Neither did Palin, who made closing remarks after the Arizona senator had concluded.

“Stump the candidate” would have to wait for another time.

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Aaron Josefczyk

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s pick of former rival Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate taps his experience as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but drew quick critiques.

Almost instantly questions were raised about whether the selection opens Obama up to criticism that he is weak on foreign policy — and rival Republican John McCain’s campaign quickly seized on that point by launching an new television advertisement (see below).

Meanwhile, while news that former rival Hillary Clinton was not vetted by Obama for his short-list of vice presidential contenders was probably going to irk her supporters already bitter that she is not the nominee, Clinton was one of the first to issue a supportive statement of the ticket.

“In naming my colleague and friend Senator Joe Biden to be the Vice Presidential nominee, Senator Obama has continued in the best traditions for the Vice Presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant,” she said.

Are Democrats happy with Biden as their VP candidate or will the Clinton bitterness linger? Will the foreign policy experience question make them stumble?  And did the much-hyped text message delivering the Biden news work or fall flat?

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