Georgia en la campaña electoral

Desde el primer día Georgia está presente en la campaña electoral. Mccain, que ha visitado la zona unas cuantas veces, fue el primero en intervenir, de manera contundente, exigiendo a Rusia la retirada.

Ayer volvió a convocar una rueda de prensa con el objeto de volver a comentar la situación. Su posición no ha variado, quizás ha adquirido aún más fuerza, con el desarrollo de los acontecimientos: exige a Rusia con contundencia que termine con los ataques a Georgia, señala a Rusia como peligro y critica a la OTAN por no ser suficientemente contundente; además ha pedido ayuda inmediata de la White House al gobierno de Georgia. Algunos medios están utilizando la situación para destacar su presciencia y le han otorgado cierto papel de gran estadista, al acertar plenamente con la manera en que se iban a desarrollar las cosas desde su primera intervención. Otros incluso señalan como está marcando el camino tanto de Obama como del mismísimo George W. Bush. Lo que no hay duda es que la crisis le ha valido para reforzar la imagen de liderazgo en política exterior que ya tenía.

Obama que el primer día se manifestó por la necesidad de que las dos partes se contuvieran y diálogaran para terminar con las hostilidades, de una forma neutra y sin terminar de mojarse. Ayer hizo un alto en sus vacaciones Hawaianas, quizás para no dejar sólo a Mccain en los medios, en su intervención se presentó más contundente, condenando la escalada de violencia por parte de Rusia y, aunque no pudo evitar algo así como yo ya avisé, y esto es un problema de no haber hecho los deberes antes, se acercaba bastante a la posición de Mccain.

Algunos enlaces:

Like Kosovo, Bosnia, Kuwait and other unfamiliar places before, Ossetia reminds us that a small, remote corner of the globe can explode into an international crisis. One who was up to speed on Georgia and the menace it faced from Russia was veteran Sen. John McCain. He had visited the Caucasian nation three times in a dozen years. When fighting erupted, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate got on the phone to gather details and issued a statement Friday summarizing the situation, tagging Russia as the aggressor and demanding it withdraw its forces from the sovereign territory of Georgia. It took first-term Sen. Barack Obama three tries to get it right. – Chicago Sun Times’ Steve Huntley

By Monday, both Bush and Obama were playing catch-up to Sen. John McCain, who seemed to have grasped the gravity from the get-go and whose support for Georgia is long-standing. He took the lead from the outset, demanding on Friday morning an emergency meeting of NATO and Western aid to the fledgling democracy. – Jonah Goldberg In The Los Angeles Times

The speed with which Senator McCain seized the leadership in the first foreign policy crisis of the presidential campaign may not be surprising. Mr. McCain after all, backed the surge strategy in Iraq, while Senator Obama and many others were opposing it. But his emergence on the Georgia crisis is no less impressive. When Russia took advantage of the Olympics to launch an operation aimed at ousting the democratically elected government in a neighboring country that is an aspiring NATO member, Mr. Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, initially called on both sides to exercise restraint. Mr. McCain saw it immediately for what it was, Russian aggression. – New York Sun

The crisis has played mostly to McCain’s advantage. McCain and his advisers have long pushed for the U.S. to respond more aggressively to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s threats against pro-Western neighbors like Georgia and Ukraine by kicking it out of the G-8 and limiting its contact with NATO. The campaign wasted no time calling this position «prescient,» and it called for a more thorough application of diplomatic pressure than did either the Administration or the Obama campaign — including an emergency session of the NATO council to consider a peacekeeping force, to reassess relations with Russia and to reconsider offering a membership plan to Georgia. Obama’s campaign made two early missteps. – Time

John McCain had the Russian leader pegged better, which speaks well of his foreign-policy instincts. The Republican Presidential candidate has long said that Russia should be booted from the G-8 and yesterday he outlined a forceful Western strategy on Russia that stops short of military action. Barack Obama has in the past indicated support for the Georgia and Ukraine NATO bids, but the Democratic candidate has yet to explain in any detail how he would respond to the current conflict. – The Wall Street Journal