Foreign Policy Doesn't Count In Elections

During the presidential primaries Barack Obama was criticized for lacking foreign policy experience. Now vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is suffering the same attacks.

Historically, though, American voters could care less.

Only two presidents elected since 1824 could claim foreign policy experience before taking office. The first was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who commanded multinational armies in Europe during World War II. The second was George H.W. Bush, who was ambassador to the United Nations, head of the American interest office in China and CIA director.

Other than Bush, only two vice presidents in the nation’s history held foreign policy credentials prior to election. John Adams, the nation’s first vice president, negotiated the peace treaty between the fledgling United States and Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson served as secretary of state before he became the nation’s second vice president.

By nominating McCain and Obama, voters have once again declared foreign policy experience and issues of secondary importance to the other characteristics and ideas they want from a national leader. Let’s get over it and move on.

Barack Obama and Foreign Policy

The news media should stop using foreign policy experience as a factor when judging Barack Obama's viability as a presidential candidate.

The last president with any pre-election credentials in that arena was George H.W. Bush, who earned them as the director of central intelligence, UN ambassador and chief of the liason office to the Peoples Republic of China. And it was domestic issues, not foreign relations, that saw him out of office after one term.

Prior to Bush's election in 1989, the last president with important international political experience was Dwight D. Eisenhower, first elected in 1952 and the former supreme commander of allied armies in Europe during World War II.

While increasingly important in today's world, expertise in foreign relations has always been a secondary consideration for American voters when choosing a president. None of the other candidates on the political stage today have meaningful international experience so raising it as an issue in Obama's case is unfair.