http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/politics/01hoops.html?ei=5065&en=4249d627aad4dae2&ex=1181275200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Obama scores SPPs (Socratic Presidential Points) by the fact that he is a pick-up basketball aficionado. Pick-up basketball is like international relations: there is a general framework of rules on which the players purport to agree, but energy, daring, guile and rhetorical skill in justifying one's application of the rules are essential. In addtion, alliances often change (A, B and C may play D, E and F in a game of three on three, but the next game may be B, D and E against A, C and F). Keep an eye on the candidate's behavior in aspects of their lives in which the rules are fluid: it is one way to try to discern how they will act in the international arena (confession: for me, a US President's ability to negotiate the international relations thicket is THE most important qualification to lead the country; without the preservation of the United States as a big mixed ("mixed" in the sense of having aristocratic, oligarchic and democratic elements) republic in the world system, our differences about tax policy, business regulations, homosexual marriage and abortion will be irrelevant, it is better that we fight among ourselves about these issues under our system than have the decisions imposed on us by a tyrannical regime of whatever ideological stripe).
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The moral climate of the United States is first and foremost what defines us as a nation. So, if we allow immorality and unchristian behavior to spread, we are destroying our own nation.
I believer fervently in morality playing the dominant role in foreign policy. This does not mean Jimmy Carter style hand wringing over human rights, but it does mean judging foreign policy by our Christian values and our Constitution as written.
What we need in foreign policy leaders is not so much verbal dexterity and sophistry, but leaders who are willing to serve and lay down their lives for the American people.
Note: Nice reference to the Republic.
Note 2: Pickup basketball has no foreign policy value, with all due consolation to any affected parties.
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