Two money excerpts from today’s big foreign policy speech to the Los Angeles Human Affairs Council, the text of which you’ll find here. The first half is aimed at convincing McCainocrats that he’s not Bush: “Mutual respect and trust” with our allies, no torture at home, a shiny new UN-esque “League of Democracies” to check American power and promote illiberal values abroad, etc etc. The one part where I perked up was where he called for Russia to be kicked out of the G8 and replaced with Brazil and India. Compare that with the passage where he calls for (cautious) outreach to China, provided they clean up their human rights record. A provocative triangulation.

The segments here come from the very beginning and very end of the speech. The latter is the bitter pill he’s asking swing voters to swallow after spooning on the sugar; the former is his attempt to derail the Democrats’ endless carping about his “100 years in Iraq” comment. Can a man who spent five years having his limbs broken in an enemy prison camp really be regarded as sweet on war? We’ll find out soon.

Link: sevenload.com