When I was offered an opportunity to interview Pepperdine senior fellow and author Bruce Herschensohn, once the Republican nominee for US Senate against Barbara Boxer in 1992, I leaped at the chance.  Herschensohn had been a fixture on Los Angeles television for 14 years, engaging in spirited but respectful debates with former Senator John Tunney on KABC on the entire range of political issues.  In a very real sense, I got a good deal of my political education from those installments, which began in my teen years.

As you’ll soon discover for yourself, Bruce Herschensohn is still as sharp, incisive, and delightful as ever.  His new book, Obama’s Globe: A President’s Abandonment of US Allies Around the World, examines Barack Obama’s record on what Herschensohn thinks should be the real focus of any presidential election: foreign policy.  It’s been very telling that the Obama campaign has barely mentioned it, but certainly understandable.  We discuss a number of fumbled hot spots in our 35-minute conversation, including Egypt, where both Herschensohn and I think Obama may have done the worst job of all.  We revisit Obama’s weird alliance with the Castro brothers and Hugo Chavez on Honduras, the betrayal of Poland and the Czech Republic on missile defense, the mystery of our abandonment of the UK on the Falkland Islands, and of course the incompetence of Obama’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

All of this is in his book, of course, so be sure to pick up Obama’s Globe at the bookstore or from the Amazon link.  Herschensohn picked the release date deliberately in order to make foreign policy a larger topic in the upcoming election.  And by the way, Herschensohn tells me during the first part of the interview that Senator Tunney is doing well, and that the two of them remain close friends.  He’s still teaching lessons in politics after all these years, and I hope you enjoy this one.

Maybe we’ll circle back and speak more with Bruce Herschenson closer to the election.

Update: I wrote “Chavez brothers” instead of Castro brothers, the result of a re-edit and a failure to double-check it. I’ve fixed it.