Last night on Anderson Cooper 360, two CNN political analysts charged that Senator Obama overstepped his authority as a United States Senator in acting as a negotiator with the Iraqi government and publicly disclosing statements made during those interviews.
During an interview with Anderson Cooper, David Gergen, CNN’s Senior Political Analyst stated, “Barack Obama made the first mistake of his trip, in my judgment, in releasing a statement in which he said exactly what Maliki had said in those conversations.

We have a long tradition in this country that we only have one president at a time. He’s the commander in chief and the negotiator in chief. I cannot remember a campaign which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that’s under way with another party outside the country.

I think he leaves himself open to the charge tonight that he’s meddling, that this is not his role, that he can be the critic, but he’s not the negotiator. We have a president who does that. So, I think the underlying facts support him, but I think it would be a real mistake — and I think it was a mistake — to get into these conversations and let it be used politically. “

Gergens comments were later echoed by a second CNN Analyst, Gloria Borger, who charged, “I do agree with David. And Candy, in her earlier piece, talked about walking the fine line between being this candidate and being presumptuous. And I think that he may just have crossed that, because, you know, it is a tradition. You don’t talk about these private conversations. And it’s not up to Barack Obama right now to negotiate troop withdrawals. It’s up to Barack Obama to be on a fact-finding mission, which is indeed what he has said he was on. “

Gergen and Borger have it right, Senator Obama is not the President and in fact is not even the official presidential nominee of his party. Obama’s trip to Iraq is a taxpayer funded “Fact-Finding” mission in which he has no authority granted to him by congress nor the administration to engage in negotiations. His actions yesterday were indeed ‘presumptuous’ and violated his duties as a United States Senator.

The President of The United States is responsible for the course of foreign policy, and although Obama has the right to question or criticize that foreign policy, he has no constitutional authority to act in a negotiative role with foreign dignitaries.

His orchestration in Germany is another gross violation of presidential politiking. In my view for him to have the gumption to give a speech in Germany at such a historic location, and then film it for potential use in a campaign advertisement, it is just bad form to say the least.

His use of a known terrorist orginazation for security is another example of unusual, behavior, the list just goes on and on…

Anyway, he idea of green being associated with Hamas is questionable at best, it seems nothing more than the same old Obama campaign being overly PC and trying to shape the event. Will they ask the women in the photo shot to remove their head dress?

Hey Dan, I meant to thank you for your help getting situated earlier this year! Thanks!