Obama has taken some rather hardline stances in the past when it has come to Pakistan. He’s stated in the past that:

• the US should unilaterally send troops into Pakistan if there is actionable intelligence re: high value terrorist targets. (He later revisited this statement.)
• US Vice President, Dick Cheney, who currently manages US policy towards Pakistan, should visit Pakistan and ask President Musharraf to step down.
• Pakistan has many problems — including an anti-democratic president and an Islamist extremist movement that operates freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Without having made substantive statements with regard to Pakistan since his botched comment over invading Pakistan (see above), it’s clear that Obama doesn’t have a detailed Pakistan policy the way Senator Joe Biden did. In fact, now that Sen. Biden has quit his election bid for president, there are few, if any remaining candidates, with legitimate Pakistan related policies. For instance, Senator Hillary Clinton’s latest proposal that Pakistan share oversight of its nuclear weapons with the US and Great Britain is ludicrous — not legitimate policy.

There is an opening here for the Pakistani foreign ministry.

With a stunning win at the Iowa Caucuses and real potential for a win in New Hampshire only days away, Barack Obama’s chances for the White House continue to grow. It’s in the interest of the Pakistani foreign office, particularly the Pakistan Embassy, to be as accessible and as engaged as possible with US presidential candidates, particularly those such as Obama, in the hopes of shaping future US foreign policy towards Pakistan for the next half decade.

Campaign donations wouldn’t hurt either.