When Senator Barack Obama initially launched his bid for the White House, the media and established elites inside the beltway were complimentary of his lofty rhetoric, but in a flashback to 1984 (i.e. Gary Hart’s candidacy) many were wondering “Where’s the beef?”

It seems as if the media has come full circle on Obama, at least op-ed columnist Daivd Ignatius of The Washington Post. In a column today, titled “The Pragmatic Obama He's Shaping the Debate on Foreign Policy” he writes:

Indeed, you can argue that over the past month, Obama has been shaping the foreign policy debate for the Democrats -- and getting the best of the arguments. By last Sunday's televised debate in Iowa, nobody else seemed eager to challenge Obama's postulate that "strong countries and strong presidents meet and talk with our adversaries." And there was little repetition, either, of the tut-tutting that greeted his statement that he would be prepared to go after al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan, with or without President Pervez Musharraf's blessing.

Prior to the above paragraph, Ignatius writes about Obama appearing before a group of Veterans for Foreign Wars (VFW) the other day and telling the rather conservative audience exactly what he has been saying on the stump in Iowa and other early primary states. This consistency in message, no matter who the audience, is a strength of any candidate, rather than taking the easy way out and pandering to whatever group they might be speaking in front of.

Obama reminds them that he opposed the war in Iraq, even though most of the delegates doubtless supported it. He lauds the soldiers fighting there even as he criticizes the Bush administration civilians who have managed the war. He says that we have "no good options in Iraq" and that the United States must be careful about how it withdraws. He warns that when a president sends soldiers to war next time, the country must be united enough to sustain the fight.

The vets certainly aren't cheering wildly when Obama is done, but to judge from the dozens who rush up to meet him, he seems to have reassured this conservative audience that he's not a left-wing devil. When a local reporter asks him if he's surprised by the "warm response" he got, Obama displays the almost eerie self-confidence that has marked his rise as a candidate.

The past few weeks have – as Ignatius writes – witnessed a change in tactics and substance from Obama. And, he has made this turn on foreign policy. He has broken from his main rivals by being specific and consistent when it comes to his world view. His fellow candidates have called Obama "naïve” and “untested”, but the junior Senator from Illinois is now “Shaping the debate on foreign policy.”

Let's hope Obama's "shaping" lights a fire under other candidates to put forward their specifics. Senator Dodd did so recently in an op-ed , but Senator Clinton, are you listening? There is a conversation going on with the American people. Care to chime in?

Howard Salter