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Hope and skepticism for Obama on Gaza

Dante Chinni

Posted: 01.07.2009 / 9:33 AM PST

For the past few weeks – and months – Americans have been minding domestic politics and the economy. But the front pages and home pages of many of their news outlets have been focused nearly as much on the world overseas.

Indeed, President-elect Obama comes into office in two weeks with a big domestic agenda – and much of the campaign was focused on domestic issues. But the crisis involving Gaza serves as a reminder that foreign policy often has the biggest impact on a presidency.

People in our Patchwork Nation communities have different levels of interest in what they’re reading in the headlines, but there is a strong sense that foreign policy will prove crucial to Mr. Obama’s presidency. There is also concern, even among his supporters, about whether he will be up to the challenge.

Obama’s lack of foreign-policy experience was understood by many residents in our communities to be part of the gamble in voting for him. It was a common thread in our conversations with voters.

Even his vice presidential selection, Joseph Biden, told a crowd of supporters in a widely publicized episode during the campaign: “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.”

Still, it was the feeling of many voters – and presumably Mr. Biden – that Obama’s intellect and other qualifications outweighed such concerns. What about now?

Americans write in

“If you have the news on, you have been hearing about the Gaza Strip. I think the issues are so very complex that even the experts have no workable solutions to offer,” e-mails Pat Felder, owner of Felder’s Collision Parts in Baton Rouge, La. (our “Minority Central” community, which has a large African-American population). “Obama has no experience in foreign policy matters, so all we can hope is that he surrounds himself with people that can guide him correctly.”

Ms. Felder, who was not an Obama supporter in the campaign, also says that the president-elect is smart enough to put “well-versed people” around him.

A lot of people in our communities seem to feel that way: While Obama’s foreign-policy experience is lacking, the expertise in his cabinet should be a great help to him.

Some, however, worry that all the “experience” among his team members could bring on other issues. Beth Gerl, who works at a coastal hotel in Lincoln City, Ore. (our small-town “Service Worker Center”), writes of her concern that Obama could lose his way.

“I have been watching as the Israelis starve and oppress the Palestinians. My thought is that someone is making beaucoup arms sales money, and that Americans are not the only society encumbered with idiots in positions of power,” writes Ms. Gerl, who, like most of Lincoln City and people in other “Service Worker Centers,” supported Obama. “Obama will be prepared for his tasks as president. Unfortunately he is surrounded by a war machine culture and its corporate representatives.”

Others think that all the experience of the incoming White House team won’t help. Take Gay Nell Rittenberry in Hopkinsville, Ky. (our “Military Bastion” located near Fort Campbell). Ms. Rittenberry, who was strongly opposed to Obama in the campaign (as was the county she lives in), sees great peril ahead.

“No, I don’t think Obama is up to being a strong foreign policy president, and I fear his liberal, left-wing leanings could put the USA and the entire free world at a great danger,” she writes in an e-mail.

Differences from community to community

Patchwork Nation is about trying to understand the differences between types of communities. And the Gaza situation does seem to shed light on some differences.

In the communities where the vote for president was fairly evenly split, there seems more willingness to support Obama or trust him – even among his detractors. In communities that went strongly for the incoming president, the hope seems to be more tinged with concern. And in communities that were strongly anti-Obama, there is less interest in cutting him some slack.

Some of these attitudes may have to do with the centrist cabinet that Obama has named – one that leaves moderates reassured but worries the left. And some of the current feelings we’re hearing about Obama may be specific to our communities. We’ll watch more closely and check our reporting against what data in polls reveal in the months ahead.