By Mary Rae Bragg

Is President Barack Obama's international agenda too ambitious? That's the question of most interest to America's foreign-policy experts as Obama closes in on his first 100 days in office, according to Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the National Security Network, based in Washington, D.C. In Dubuque to speak Thursday night to the Dubuque Area Committee on Foreign Relations, Hurlburt told the Telegraph Herald the debate is not a partisan one, but is fueled by the difference in views between idealists and realists. The impressive list of actions already taken by Obama's administration indicates the idealists are winning, she said, but then comes the question: "How can we follow the signals with substance?"

Considering the vast array of challenges the president seeks to address, Hurlburt said she doesn't see how it can be done. "But everybody who's underestimated this guy so far has been wrong," she noted. It should not be a surprise that Obama would try to do so much because of who he is and the way foreign policy problems are so interconnected, Hurlburt said. "It's clearly Obama's personality to try to take on a lot, to not be daunted by sophisticated challenges, but it's also a little bit the measure of the world we live in and how far off track we got as a result of the Iraq War," she said.

As the president pays a call on Trinidad today, he is visiting his ninth country since taking the oath of office 87 days ago, "an extraordinary level of activity," Hurlburt said. She said it's possible to list 40 specific foreign-relation policy changes and reviews that have taken place since Jan. 20, at the same time the administration is fighting two wars, struggling with an economic crisis and working on health care reform. Hurlburt described it as "basically trying to rebuild the ship as you're trying to sail it around the iceberg."

Obama is listening to a range of opinions on foreign policy, Hurlburt said, but he is the one making the final decision. "Which is very different from your usual first-term president with limited national security background," said Hurlburt, who worked on State Department policy as a member of the Clinton administration 1995-2001. Preparing for her speech, Hurlburt said she compared Obama's convention acceptance and inaugural speeches to a list of what he's done in office and found the priorities he listed to be "almost identical" to his action. Her conclusion is that Obama came into office knowing he wanted to restore America's standing in the world, and that it has personal meaning for him.