In Tuesday’s Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, it seems Senator Obama was more interested in speechifying than in asking or getting answers to questions.

The long-winded Obama, who bills himself as a consensus builder, wasted an opportunity to show how it could work.

Each member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had seven minutes to question Petraeus and Crocker about the Iraq War. Obama used about six minutes of his time to lecture Petraeus and Crocker that the surge is of modest success given the cost and the Iraq central government is ineffectual — points he has been making in speeches and debates. As Obama was wrapping up, he said, “That, of course, now leaves me very little time to ask questions, and that’s unfortunate.”

“That’s true, Senator,” piped up Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the committee chairman and a rival for the Democratic nomination.

Petraeus never got to answer Obama’s 266-word question. Rushed at the end, Obama asked about benchmarks not met. Crocker said, “Senator, I described for Senator Sununu a little bit ago some of the things that I think are going to be very important as we move ahead.”

Obama tossed a softball: “Can you repeat those?

Biden asked Crocker to summarize and racing the clock, Crocker got in 215 words before Obama’s time was up.

One would think if this man has any substance at all he would have listened and learned from the general and the ambassador.

Instead, he must have been concentrating on his plan for Iraq which he was set to disclose today.

Obama said if he were president now, he would immediately begin pulling combat troops out of Iraq at the rate of two brigades — around 4,000 troops — a month, to be completed by the end of next year.

He would call a new constitutional convention in Iraq, convened with the United Nations, and not allow it to end until Iraq’s leaders had reached a new accord on reconciliation.

Then he would use “presidential leadership” to “surge” diplomacy with Iraq’s regional neighbors and take immediate steps to confront the “humanitarian disaster” in Iraq.

Obama scheduled his speech a day after war commander General David Petraeus and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker wrapped up testimony to Congress.

So, not only does Obama want to be President of the United States, but it seems he wants to be the leader of Iraq as well.

He needs to learn to listen to someone other than his own voice if he is to achieve the presidency. His lack of experience is showing worse than John Edwards’.