By Andrew Collins

I'm pretty skeptical about the degree to which the situation in Georgia will shift the election emphasis from domestic to foreign policy issues. Voters tend to be self-interested. Off-shore drilling is an especially important factor for voters living in states that would experience the effects of off-shore drilling. The War in Iraq resonates because, on so many levels, it directly affects U.S. citizens in every state and every demographic. The McCain camp would like for the Georgia conflict to generate passionate feelings from voters right through November, but unless we start seeing Russian submarines off the coast of Savannah, I seriously doubt that most Americans are going to cast their votes with Georgia on their mind.

That being said, the Georgia-Russia situation has given us a chance to see how McCain and Obama respond to major international conflicts that have potentially far-reaching, long-term consequences.

McCain is of the generation and ideology that still sees the world from a Cold War perspective. His response to the Russia-Georgia situation was informed heavily by his already intensely hostile attitude toward Russia, as Lahle pointed out, and by the consistently Republican strategy that we can best produce desirable foreign-policy results through saber-rattling and righteous indignation. (And yes, you heard it correctly - George W. Bush did claim, without the slightest hint of self-irony, that the unjustified, unilateral attack on Georgia has "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world.") 

McCain's apoplectic rebuke of Russia's recent invasion should play well with those voters who are still easily riled up by phrases like "commie pinko" and "red menace." After all, what could better generate enthusiasm from old-school, might-is-right conservatives than our old nemesis, Russia, invading one of its liberated former republics? McCain couldn't really ask for a better sideshow. 

But plenty of those voters who will decide the November election weren't even born during the Cold War, and plenty of the rest of us just roll our eyes when neocons wax nostalgically about the good old days, when the bad guys had names like Nikita and Leonid, rather than Osama and Mahmoud. I'm certainly not sympathetic with Russia on the Georgia invasion, but I also find McCain's strident anti-Russian sentiments counter-productive and dangerously anachronistic - the kind of approach that leads us into untenable conflicts and, ummmm, substantially damages our standing in the world. 

Did Obama score some points with his comparatively deliberate, measured response to the conflict? Well, I think he probably hurt himself with voters who think the world is one big Tom Clancy novel, but that's an ideological and generational demographic he's unlikely to win over anyway. For those of us seeking a more sophisticated, thoughtful, even nuanced approach to international relations, he may not have dazzled us with incisiveness, but he did demonstrate a calm, methodical analysis of the situation. The Russia-Georgia conflict is not the Cuban Missile Crisis redux, and - except in times of truly dire crisis - our present relations with Russia (and China…and India…and the rest of the world) require careful, informed consideration. 

This week's previous posts (most recent first): Great Power, Say Anything, Georgia, Looking Abroad.