CNN INTERVIEW: OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY JUDGMENT

Here is the transcript of Glenn Beck’s interview with me last night on CNN Headline News:

GLENN BECK: Barack Obama`s original and naive foreign policy stance was, sit down and chat with whoever wants to talk to us. He`s dialed that way back since showing a tougher side. I don`t think I believe it. The panel joins me again. So there is Joel Rosenberg, he`s the author of Epicenter 2.0.  Joel, let me start with you. Let me play a couple of pieces. This one, first, was [a] Friday…and this is what Barack Obama said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I wholeheartedly condemn the violation of Georgia`s sovereignty. I think it`s important at this point for all sides to show restraint, and to stop this armed conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Okay. Then on Saturday, he said this. “Over the last two days, Russia has escalated the crisis in Georgia through its clear and continued violation of Georgia`s sovereignty and territorial integrity. I condemn Russia`s aggressive actions and reiterate my call for an immediate ceasefire,” which he didn`t really. And then he said this on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: No matter how this conflict started, Russia has escalated it well beyond the dispute over South Ossetia and has now violated the space of another country. I reiterate my call for Russia to stop its bombing campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: This, by the way, this third statement is exactly where John McCain was on Friday. He kept moving. He seems to keep moving until he gets it right.

JOEL ROSENBERG, AUTHOR, EPICENTER 2.0: Senator Obama in his acceptance speech told us, look, John McCain, if you want a debate on judgment regarding foreign policy and being a commander in chief, that`s a debate he`s ready to have. That`s a great debate. The problem is Senator Obama`s judgment is wrong. It`s flawed. His first instinct was to tell a Democratic free country to show restraint in defending itself from Vladimir Putin`s invasion. What kind of a judgment is that?

BECK: Hang on — let`s go to Iraq.

ROSENBERG: It gets worse with Iraq.

BECK: I know. We`ve got the Anbar province. Nobody in the media is covering this. This was the most dangerous place in all of Iraq. Everybody said, oh, it could never be done. Barack Obama said more troops won`t help. One U.S. soldier [a day] on the average was dying in Anbar. When they handed the keys to the city over to the Iraqis, our soldiers weren`t wearing Kevlar, They didn`t even carry a gun to the ceremony, and everything was fine. He`s been horribly wrong, and yet he`s still claiming victory.

ROSENBERG: And he wouldn`t admit it that he had flawed judgment either. You`ll recall that Terry Moran of ABC News, when Obama went to Iraq for only his second trip ever, said he wouldn`t say — he refused to acknowledge that the surge had worked. And yet, it`s worked phenomenally well. Senator Obama, when the surge policy was announced in January 2007 said not only did he say it wouldn`t work, but it would make things worse. Now that`s clearly been wrong. It`s been proven this week, as you say, 11 out of 18 provinces in Iraq are now under Iraqi military control. And so what type of foreign policy judgment is this community activist junior senator bringing to the table?

STEVE MOORE, WALL STREET JOURNAL: You know, Joel, it`s even worse than that because now he was against the surge, which is allowing us now to withdraw troops. So now that we`re withdrawing troops, he`ll say, see, this is what I was for all along. It wouldn`t be happening — I think McCain put it very well. Do you want to withdraw the troops honorably or do you want to withdraw them dishonorably? That wouldn`t happen without the surge.

BECK: Here is the problem, guys. Can anybody help figure this — this conundrum out, and that is, people care about the war when the media tells them it`s going poorly. Then, all of a sudden, they care. And then when it`s going well, the media doesn`t tell them it`s going well. Nobody says anything about it. They`re like, “Of course it`s going well. We`re America. It`s going to solve itself.” Nobody even talks about it. How do you demonstrate how wrong this guy has been every step of the way when the media won`t — when the media agrees with him? They just want to, like, “I guess we were wrong, too. I guess we won`t point that out?” Anybody have an answer?

ROSENBERG: That`s the $64 million question, right. But Senator Obama has invited the question by challenging McCain on debates on foreign policy even though John McCain offered ten debates this summer and he ducked them.

BECK: Right. Ok, Jonah.

JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW: Yes.

BECK: Go ahead. Let`s put you on the spot, baby. Come on.

GOLDBERG: This is always the problem for Republicans in this kind of environment, which is not that new, which is that the mainstream media circles the wagons around their anointed one, and the Republicans have to go over the heads of the mainstream media. In one sense, McCain has advantages that say, George Herbert Walker Bush never had or that even in some ways Reagan never had in there are all these other media outlets, like this show. Like National Review Online, the Web, the bloggers; all that kind of stuff. It`s easier to get around those guys. But we see with something like Palin, you know, where you hear these intense feeding frenzies that no matter how much Rush Limbaugh and all the good guys try to fight it, it`s going to — they can destroy someone.

BECK: Jonah, let me come back to you then on this question. I have a magazine, “Fusion” magazine, and I just finished the October issue and the cover. And I had an argument with my managing editor because I wanted the cover split in half. Obama split in half — half of it, he`s the Messiah, the other half, he`s Mussolini. And the headline is “Messiah or Mussolini?” She said that doesn`t make any sense. Of course, he`s not going to be Mussolini. I said, really, everyone in the press loved Mussolini for years. It only went bad when he joined with Hitler. He actually protected Jews. The thing that Mussolini is, is he set up the system where you could not question him. He was the ultimate authority. That`s what this progressive movement is moving us towards.

ROSENBERG: Let me just say though, clever though that is, Obama is not a fascist. I think we can say that. He`s much more Jimmy Carter — he`s much more Jimmy Carter.

BECK: Really? Hang on just a second. Let me ask you this. I know he`s not a fascist right now, but tell me, we`re talking about bailing out all the industries. There are people in Congress, the progressive movement, want to nationalize all of our industries, the big ones, the automakers, the airlines, the oil industries, et cetera, et cetera. You tell me how it`s not fascist when you speak out against it and you`re called a racist or whatever for disagreeing with policies?

ROSENBERG: You know the differences. They`ve got a near lock on the media, but they don`t have a complete lock. Nevertheless, this week is important for the McCain/Palin campaign. And I would say for example, Palin, one thing she needs to do is make it clear she is an expert. She may not be an expert on everything, but she`s an expert on energy. She understands — she runs the second largest energy- producing state in the country and built a $26 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the United States. She`s got to make it clear she understands national security is linked to our energy independence. And that`s something that the other side doesn`t understand.

BECK: But nobody is doing — nobody is talking about that. You know what happened today? Russia`s energy ministry said they`re being told to prepare now to shut off oil and gas to Germany and Poland, and nobody is paying attention to it.

MOORE: That`s why she`s such an important choice. She gets energy policy. Most of these people are against drilling up in Alaska and the Alaska National Wildlife. They`ve never been up there. They`ve never been up to the North Slope. This idea that somehow drilling up there is going to hurt the environment or the bison is absolutely lunacy. She knows that.

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