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Presidential hopeful speaks with Charles Gibson on foreign policy.

John McCain claims the media's in love with Barack Obama. Is there any truth to that, or is McCain just grumpy that his golf-cart photo-op was upstaged by Obama's ride in the King's Benz. (No idea what we're talking about? Watch today's Lunch!)

John McCain claims the media's in love with Barack Obama. Is there any truth to that, or is McCain just grumpy that his golf-cart photo-op was upstaged by Obama's ride in the King's Benz. (No idea what we're talking about? Watch today's Lunch!)

Last week, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed charges for the first time against a sitting head of state, charging President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan with three counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes. Fareed Zakaria had Sudan s ambassador to the United Nations on his CNN show, GPS, to discuss the charges, which he called a joke and cited the U.S. 2002 withdrawal from the ICC treaty as an example of why Sudan does not recognize the court s authority and will not cooperate with it: Download | Play Download | Play ZAKARIA: Will your government mount a defense in the International Criminal Court? MOHAMAD: We have no relation with the International Criminal Court. We don t recognize its authority. We are not going to cooperate with it. ZAKARIA: But of course, you know that other governments that did not recognize the Criminal Court were still forced to extradite their leaders. I m thinking of Yugoslavia. MOHAMAD: No. I don t care about them. As far as we are concerned, we are not members. We have been told these days repeatedly that the ICC is an independent body. And so, OK, if it s an independent body, I am not a U.N. organ. We have full right to be part of it or not. And we choose not to be part of it, like the United States. (full transcript) Complicating the ICC s ability to pursue war crimes charges, as referenced in the interview by Sudan s UN ambassador, is President Bush s unsigning of the International Criminal Court treaty in 2002. Though President Bush has publicly denounced the killings in Sudan as genocide, the administration has soft-pedaled sanctions against the Sudanese government to preserve its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan, once a safe haven for bin Laden that has become a crossroads for Islamic militants making their way to Iraq and Pakistan. The most major impediment to ending the genocide in Darfur has been China s longstanding diplomatic protection and economic support in return for its access to the 500,000 barrels of oil that Sudan produces daily. China, also not a signatory to the ICC treaty, was revealed in a report about a week ago by the BBC to be in violation of the UN arms embargo there through its export of weapons and training of fighter pilots. Supporters of Barack Obama who would like to see the United States reembrace the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty, thereby reaffirming its commitment to human rights, have created a group on the candidate s website, my.barackobama.com.

Barack Obama s trip overseas is off to a great start with Prime Minister Maliki endorsing his withdrawal plan and the White House accidentally informing every news organization about it and Chuck Todd is hearing that Republicans are starting to worry. Download | Play Download | Play MR. TODD: Republicans are panicked about this trip because they think that this is going to be a home run. And arguably, you ve got some Obama folks who actually think he ought to come home right now. It s never going to get as good as it s gotten in the last 48 hours. You ve got McCain suddenly in the White House parroting what Obama has been saying in Afghanistan. The McCain folks will say, Hey, we re not parroting. We ve been there before. But they clearly caught McCain flat-footed there. And then what Maliki did, even in the backtrack statement that the spokes the government spokesperson over there said, he threw in the word timetable. In order to really appreciate the importance of the Maliki development, consider what would happen if the opposite occured: To really understand the importance of Maliki s comments, you need to consider their opposite. Imagine if Maliki had walked in front of the cameras and said, at this stage, a timetable for withdrawal is unrealistic, and we hope our American friends will not bow to domestic political pressures and be hasty in leaving Iraq just as the country improves. It would be a transformative moment in this election. John McCain would talk of nothing else. The cable shows would talk of nothing else. Magazines would run thousands of covers about Obama s Iraq Problem. Obama would probably lose the race. Exactly. And this is what Marc Amibinder has to report: Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, We re fu*ked. If McCain loses the foreign policy debate, which is becoming increasingly likely, he ll have an insurmountable problem on his hands.

How many more of these will it take before we finally dispense with the idea that John McCain is some sort of foreign policy genius who is uniquely qualified to be commander-in-chief? Today on Good Morning America, John McCain was asked whether he agreed with Barack Obama when he says the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent. In predictable fashion, McCain downplays the significance of the deteriorating security situation there. In perhaps less predictable fashion, he magically redraws the borders of two Middle Eastern countries. Download | Play Download | Play We have a lot of work to do. It s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border. I doubt anyone here really needs me to do this, but here we go: As you can clearly see, there is no common border between Iraq and Pakistan. Just another gaffe to add to the pile.

The Democratic candidate makes stops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both candidates may have to reassess their foreign policy strategies.

What's the difference between "misspeaking" and just plain having your facts wrong? Today's Lunch takes a look at McCain's continued references to a country that hasn't existed for 16 years. But can Obama capitalize?

What's the difference between "misspeaking" and just plain having your facts wrong? Today's Lunch takes a look at McCain's continued references to a country that hasn't existed for 16 years. But can Obama capitalize?

in 5 simple steps.

For Snack today, Will looks at the presidential candidates' travel abroad. What are the risks and rewards of talking free trade and immigration with foreign leaders while trying to win votes at home?

As the debate over American foreign policy intensifies in the run-up to next year s presidential elections, one overarching concern appears increasingly important to citizens and the political class alike: How can the United States reclaim the global leadership role that it has enjoyed since 1945, but seems in recent years to have lost?The Century Foundation and the United Nations Foundation convened a luncheon roundtable discussion on Wednesday, 28 November 2007, on Reinventing American Global Leadership : What Can American Politics Bear? With discussion led by pollster Bill McInturff, New York Times editorial page deputy editor Carla Robbins, and former Senator and UNF president Timothy E. Wirth, the roundtable explored newly released public opinion polling on what American global leadership signifies both to Americans and the rest of the world, and how perceptions of national assertiveness and international cooperation in light of the Iraq experience are changing the terms of the debate. TCF senior fellow Jeffrey Laurenti moderated.

John McCain discusses how he would approach Iraq after the war.

Tanner was our host in Nashville, Tennessee. We had a great time talking to him about politics and America.

Catching up on archived editions of A Critical Ear. This one's from 29 May.

I fell behind in uploading episodes of A Critical Ear to this site - attached are 5 recent episodes (8 May to 12 June). The 19 June episode has been uploaded separately.

The highlights are: A. Barack Obama's promises to Israel that he may have a difficult time honoring in the future. B. Barack Obama fires first salvo across John McCain's economic bow while only receiving harmless smoke and mirrors in return. Obama has successfully pinned the Bush administration's economic woes on McCain like a tail on the donkey. From our view, he wears it well. C. Country bracing for higher fuel and food prices as farmers fear modest crops this year. With Ben Bernanke signaling an end to rate cuts to stem inflation, the country is in for a rough ride.

Obama presents new stance on talking to Iran during speech to pro-Israel group.

Barack Obama, the nominee of the Democratic Party as of last night’s final primary contest, awakens this morning to the nightmare of a shotgun wedding with Hillary Clinton as his running mate. After clearing every hurdle to achieve what no person of color, man or woman has in the history of American politics, he now has to find a way to placate a bunch of self-centered losers from forcible glomming on to his success. Hillary Clinton failed to do the right thing, the stand up thing, and the proper thing by congratulating Barack Obama on winning the needed number of delegates to capture the nomination. Intentionally, she snatched the door open to hijack her way back into the White House by hanging on to Obama’s coattails. Somehow, she has deluded herself and the fringe element within her core support that the Obama camp gives a rat’s ass about what she wants. America is a country that loves a winner and shuns its losers. There is little room for disgruntled second place finishers.

As much as we hate rats and rat bastards, many times it is the only way to get to the truth. This is especially true when the government and the power that runs it is involved. Scott McClellan’s new book "What Happened" leveled the hammer big time on the Bush administration without mercy, leaving Karl Rove’s ass hanging in the wind. With John Conyers, heading up the House Judiciary Committee shoving a subpoena up Karl’s butt to force some conversation, conversation that Karl and the rest of the White House crew has been thumbing their noses at, maybe the tool needed to give Rove the tight screw he has coming. To date Karl has been playing the executive privileged game saying he and his “Boyz” are above it all. But this well timed book release is forcing the all the ugly and largely ignored stories of what was really going on behind the scenes that led this country to war at a time that has to have Karl “The Pillsbury Dough Boy” shitting bricks

As John McCain was speaking at the Cable Center at the University of Denver, giving a speech on foreign policy issues, including nukes war protesters shouted, endless war, endless war, and I believe, end this war, end this war, causing him to pause his speech a few times His supporters then started to yell John McCain Download | Play Download | Play McCain: Forty five years ago, President John F Kennedy asked the American people to imagine, what the world would look like if Nuclear weapons spread beyond the few powers that then held them. To the many other nations that sought them. Stop and think for a moment he said, what it would mean to have nuclear weapons in so many hands large and small Protester: Endless war, endless war, Endless war, endless war . end this war, end this war Crowd: John McCain, John McCain. McCain: You know ahhh, it s not too important, but I have town hall meetings all the time, I ll be having one tomorrow where people are allowed to come and state their views and we exchange them and the one thing we don t do is interfere with other people s right to free speech, but that doesn t seem to be the case with these people Weren t these people exercising their right to free speech, Mr McCain? It happened a total of four times from what I ve heard so far They were removed peacefully. John is proud of the fact that he has town hall meetings and let s people speak well he better buckle up. I imagine they ll go to the Bush/Cheney loyalty oath pledges soon enough .McCain actually uses part of a John F. Kennedy speech to try and scare the nation into voting for him

Returning from any three-day weekend generally leaves some of us a little sluggish and lacking that creative spark. Fortunately for me, an anonymous comment left at the blog gave me the spark for today’s podcast. Our last podcast posting covered the possibility of worldwide despair due to global disasters along with food and fuel shortages topped off with domestic and international economic downturns that last beyond our comfort zones and levels of measurable tolerance. We also mentioned that because of said poor economic outlook and global catastrophes many would be lucky to have a backyard to have a backyard Bar BQ in this year. Based on most reports from airline hotels and restaurants many did just that and stayed close to home.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/2008/senbiden.html Last week, Senator John McCain laid out what he hopes to achieve with his foreign policy by 2013 without a single sentence on how he expects to actually get there. In a speech and Q and offer a progressive alternative to Sen. McCain s foreign policy ideas.