Quote Originally Posted by orange dave View Post
So, going back to this example, if a president decided to make take a different path on Somalia, do you think he could be could sell it to the public and get reelected? Especially supposing it were a major component of the WOT? I think it might be possible for a candidate with other strengths, but they wouldn't be running on foreign policy or the WOT. ...Or, I don't know, maybe Obama disproves me. But, even though he was gearing up for a big fight on foreign policy, the election was really won on the economy. It's an open question.
It's important to remember that, on the whole, the electorate in this country tends to vote more on domestic issues than they do foreign policy (especially in the last 40 years or so). That's a generalization to be sure, but one that I think has a great deal of truth to it. It takes something really major for foreign policy to figure in the minds of most voters, although the pundits love to ramble on about it.