Presidential contender Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has been moving aggressively to establish his foreign policy credentials in the early going of this long, long campaign. Probably because the standard line about Obama is that his short time in the Senate means he has no experience, the candidate has begun to flex his muscles with several speeches culminating in one this week on his home turf to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Taken together with the comments from this morning by David Brooks (Josh will hopefully have more on this shortly), Obama's speech outlined a somewhat muscular look at the military, a collaborative response to threats, and a leadership role in building security through stability. Much of this meshes with advice the GII and others have been offering and with the prevailing view of much of the public about how our foreign policy should be (see here and here).

Obama contrasted his approach with that of the current administration. As the Times wrote:

“America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America,” Mr. Obama said. “We must neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission — we must lead the world, by deed and example.”

From my perspective, a rap on Obama -- that he is triangulating to win votes but not actually thinking about leading the country -- isn't all that much of a complaint. For a lot of Americans, it is probably something of a breath of fresh air to hear a candidate speak in this manner about foreign policy (though it's worth pointing out that Obama may be swinging for the fences early in this game, since his rhetoric seems aimed at the casual voter and not the party elite who he needs to get him through the first stage of this contest next February).

I believe that candidates do have an important job during campaigns, even ones as long as this one. And unfortunately, I concede that this job -- connecting with people first in your party's base and then across the country (though mostly in key states) -- involves a lot of saying what people want to hear, giving the public what it wants, so to speak. What's most unfortunate is that this phase of the work is so disconnected from the part about running the country later. I know I'm not alone in thinking back to a candidate I supported because of the things he or she said and the way those words made me think about the type of leader this candidate would be, only to be disappointed with the execution.

We'll try to check in on all the candidates foreign policy big-principle speeches on the blog as we continue. We've already heard this type of speech from not-yet candidates like Chuck Hagel, and we'll be writing up those and other perspectives as the blog grows and time permits.