Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is continuing his running debate with competitor Hillary Clinton over foreign diplomacy.
During an event this morning in Cedar Rapids, Obama said Washington experience often results in relying on conventional wisdom — even if it doesn’t work.
"When you don’t learn from it, that’s how people end up voting for this war in Iraq was people were not willing to ask difficult questions because the conventional wisdom inside Washington was either this was going to be a cakewalk or it would be political suicide to vote against it," Obama said, referring to Clinton’s vote giving President Bush authority to act in Iraq.
At last week’s debate among Democratic presidential candidates, Obama said he would meet with hostile leaders of foreign nations in his first year in office. Clinton called the strategy "naive."
Also today, Obama accused the Bush Administration of cronyism and Obama promised that if he’s elected president, he will forbid his aides to deal with issues involving former employers.
"When you leave, you will not be able to lobby the administration throughout the remainder of my term in office," Obama said. "…You will not be able to leave and then use the ‘revolving door’ to cash in on your service."
Obama’s staff staged his speech at a Cedar Rapids Middle School named in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who was credited with breaking up business monopolies. According to Obama, today’s economy resembles what it was like when Roosevelt took office as wealth in America at the turn of the last century was concentrated in very few hands.