As Barack Obama noted during his brief appearance at this morning’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, the State Department, “has got a lot on its plate between Iraq, Iran, North Korea and so on.” With that in mind, it was a bit surprising to hear the presidential hopeful grill Deputy Secretary of State nominee John Negroponte on the dangers of… “mercury contamination in the fish that we eat.”
After questioning Negroponte on potential military confrontation with Iran–Topic One at the hearing–Obama then launched into a sermon about the “stunning level of mercury” in both ocean fish and “fresh water fish that our constituents, particularly around the Great Lakes region, might catch in their favorite local lakes.” Obama’s three-minute “question” chided the State Department for not having a mercury strategy ready for a U.N. meeting next week in Kenya on the issue. Negroponte, taken completely by surprise, fumbled around for a response. “I’m not personally familiar with that issue,” he said.
Of course, it wouldn’t be unusual for a Senator to spend some of his precious camera time firing off a soundbite or two for the local news just in case, say, he doesn’t get elected president. Obama’s receiving plenty of fawning press attention, but Hillary Clinton is still way ahead of him in the polls and in the money chase, and there’s no telling yet if voters will swoon for him as hard as Washington reporters have. Could Obama’s plea for the fishies of Lake Michigan be a sign that he’s hedging his bets, just in case the leader of the free world gig goes to someone else? The last thing he wants is to make the folks back home in Illinois feel like they’re taking a backseat to his loftier ambitions. After all, if Obama’s not moving into the White House in January 2009, he’ll already be deep into his next campaign–trying to hold onto his Senate seat, which comes up in 2010.
