British ‘Assessment’ Of Barack Obama Leaked

October 2, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama

Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British Ambassador to Washington wrote a classified assessment of Barack Obama for P.M. Gordan Brown. Somehow that document was leaked to the London Telegraph.

The candid letter, marked as containing “sensitive judgements” and requesting officials to “protect the contents carefully” gives an interesting insight in to how the British government view Senator Obama.

Here’s some of the highlights from the document:

Sir Nigel traces the ambition of Mr Obama, 47, to reach the White House right back to his 20s or before. “He has talked at least since the 1980s about a shot at the Presidency.”

He also identifies several political vulnerabilities that Sen McCain will seek to exploit in the last month of his campaign against the Illinois senator. The leaked letter will provide him with welcome ammunition.

Mr Obama “can seem to sit on the fence, assiduously balancing pros and cons”, Sir Nigel wrote, and “does betray a highly educated and upper middle class mindset”. Charges of elitism “are not entirely unfair” and he is “maybe aloof, insensitive” at times.

“He can talk too dispassionately for a national campaign about issues which touch people personally, eg his notorious San Francisco comments [in April] about small-town Pennsylvanians ‘clinging’ to guns and religion.”

Mr Obama’s Democratic primary victory over the former First Lady showed that “he is tough and competitive. This is of course the Chicago school.

You don’t beat Clinton without being resilient” but “his energy levels do dip and he can be uninspiring e.g. in debates”.

Sir Nigel advises of a potential conflict with an Obama administration over Iran:

“If Obama wins, we will need to consider with him the articulation between (a) his desire for ‘unconditional’ dialogue with Iran and (b) our and the [United Nations Security Council]’s requirement of prior suspension of enrichment before the nuclear negotiations proper can begin.”

However, Nigel does feel that Obama’s views on Iraq are much more aligned with Britain’s policies:

“Whatever the detail, our own proposed transition in south-east Iraq would be consistent with Obama’s likely approach. Obama’s ideas on a more expansive regional framework for Iraq would also fit well with our thinking.”

The last part is perhaps the most stinging, but nevertheless true:

“His voting record was decidedly liberal. But the main impression is of someone who was finding his feet, and then got diverted by his presidential ambitions.”

Sir Nigel later reiterates the point: “Although he has been a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for four years, and a regular attender of meetings in his first two, there is little Obama track record to refer back to.”

I don’t think the document reveals anything we didn’t already know about Barack Obama, but it is interesting to see the inside thinking of a foreign government about him.