Obama's foreign policy goals more distant now
With US global positions seen eroding, and the power of ISIS, Russia and China rising, Republicans may be in a position to make it even harder for him to achieve his aim
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WHEN he first ran for president in 2008, the then senator Barack Obama from Illinois insisted that if elected, he would advance a foreign policy agenda that would strive to be the antithesis of his predecessor's diplomatic and national security approach.
Mr Obama's critique of former president George W Bush's foreign policy centred on his policies in the Middle East, and in particular, his decision to oust Saddam Hussein from power and invade Iraq as part of an ambitious programme to remake the Middle East.
Indeed, one of the reasons that Mr Obama was able to beat then senator Hillary Clinton from New York in the Democratic presidential primaries in 2008 was his attack on her Senate vote in support of giving authority to Mr Bush to go to war in Iraq.
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