Michael Sieburg

Obama touts life abroad as a strong foreign policy qualification. I couldn’t agree more.

The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and traveled overseas … is, I have a better sense of how they’re thinking and what their society is really like,” Obama said.

“A lot of my knowledge about foreign affairs isn’t just what I studied in school — I studied international relations when I was in college — it’s not just the work I do on the Senate foreign relations committee.

“It’s actually having the knowledge of how ordinary people in these other countries live.” (More)

There is a reason why certain segments of the the private sector, nonprofits, international organizations, and graduate schools are increasingly showing preference for those who have experience living abroad. It’s one thing to read a book about a country. It’s another to walk its streets, eat the food, and chat with the locals.