Obama homers, Hillary dithers
Barack Obama has once again taken a harder line against the Pakistani dictator than has Hillary Clinton. Obama’s reaction to martial law:
The United States must be clear and unequivocal: President Musharraf should reverse this declaration, respect the decision of the Supreme Court, and hold free and fair elections for parliament in January. At the same time, the United States must move beyond the administration’s failed policies of promoting stability over democracy. [Link via liberal blog]
In contrast, Hillary merely wrings her hands and expresses disappointment — a weaker statement than even Dubya’s. Though she and Obama agree that Dubya’s failed to find bin Laden, her Musharraf policy is business as usual:
Asked if she had anything specific to say to Musharraf who on Saturday suspended the nation’s constitution, Clinton said she was “disappointed… I would hope he would move to restore constitutional government as soon as possible.” [Link]
Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, told reporters that the US government was “deeply disturbed” by Gen Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule. “We cannot support emergency rule or the extreme measures taken during the emergency…” [Link]
With respect to Pakistan policy, Clinton is the status quo candidate. Americans must not vote for Hillary based on name recognition alone. There are bright lines between the two, and actually getting bin Laden is one of them.
Putting Obama’s name on voters’ lips is relatively cheap. Advertising the Windows 95 launch cost around $300M; we’ve already laid out 30x that in aid to Pakistan since 9/11 and gotten little in return:
… the Frontier Corps [is] equipped… with little more than “sandals and bolt-action rifles…” as they face Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters equipped with assault rifles and grenade launchers…
… rather than use the more than $7 billion in U.S. military aid to bolster its counter-terrorism capabilities, Pakistan has spent the bulk of it on heavy arms… for conventional warfare with India… [Link - thanks, kautilya]
on Monday, November 5th, 2007, 1:56 pm in Musharraf, Pakistan, Politics › 
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that’s because barack is not going to change who he is :-)
Hillary — the new Condoleezza Rice!
And just for the record, Dubya has made no statement — Mr. Personality-Based-Foreign-Policy hasn’t even let the fingers do the walking to talk to Musharraf directly. He’s been as MIA as he was for most of the day on September 11.