Power Line’s Scott Johnson has an excellent post this morning, disemboweling a think piece by Matt Bai in today’s NY Times Magazine, which is yet another hymn to Kerry’s vaunted multi-lateralism. According to Bai, if elected, Kerry would begin his new administration “by going immediately to the United Nations to deliver a speech recasting American foreign policy.”
What a guy. Never mind that the United Nations has done nothing against a whole litany of contemporary carnage from Rwanda to Darfur. Never mind that the United Nations under Oil-for-Food has put the Mafia to shame as a brokerage house for mass theft. Mr. Kerry will run back to the Society of Kleptocrats to reassure them it’s going to be business as usual. No more of this unilateralism that upset the gravy train. No more of this macho American behavior which resulted in such “disasters” as the Libyan demarche, the handcuffing of the Khan nuclear network, the birthing of incipient democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq – countries that had been viciously totalitarian for their entire histories – and so forth. Enough of that! President Kerry would right the ship.
Scott Johnson traces these policies of the Senator back to Jimmy Carter. Possibly. But I see it a little differently. Carter was and is a closet ideologue. (Witness his eagerness to certify the Chavez election with an almost comic alacrity.) Kerry is something else. He is the Ultimate Conservative – not in politics, mind you, but in temperament. He is the man of the status quo par excellence. Nothing changes or should change in the World According to Kerry. All this talk of nuance is simply a mask for stasis. These “subtleties” of thought are almost never original, merely idea rotation for its own sake, going nowhere and deliberately so. The real(motivating) idea is not to move. No wonder he is so appealing to the solons of the Mainstream Media who benefit so greatly by this status quo. The problem is – the status quo these days is death.
(hat tip: Ron Wright)
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12 Comments
1. richard mcenroe:Kerry “cleared up” the POW/MIA question? Is Bai kidding? Just ask the families of the POW’s and MIA’s about that. Of course, Kerry DID “normalize” relations with Vietnam by killing the Human Rights in Vietnam Act after it was passed with a strong bipartisan majority in the House, and for that his family was rewarded with a $100-million construction contract by the Vitenamese.
Gee, now I wonder why Kerry hasn’t brought that up…
Oct 10, 2004 - 9:14 am 2. chuck:A google search on Matt Bai will give a good idea of where he is coming from. Context helps a lot in understanding these articles.
Oct 10, 2004 - 9:23 am 3. David Thomson:With friends like Matt Bai, John Kerry doenít need any enemies. The multi-lateral rhetroic will guarantee his defeat. Don Imus says the following:
ìIím not going to vote for him (George W. Bush), but I think he connects better with the American people, and I think the Administration has scared people to death.î
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm
Imus is right on target. President Bush is scaring ìpeople to death.î The war on terror and war in Iraq will be the deciding issues. I am convinced that the swing voters are uncomfortable with Kerryís so-called multi-lateral approach. This is similar to travelling on a road leading to nowhere.
Oct 10, 2004 - 9:26 am 4. Yehudit:I wrote a long piece on that article last night, and blogger hasn’t let me post for 3 days so everyone else is getting to it first.
But I am glad, because it shows how utterly vile Kerry is.
But I am also afraid these blogs are preaching to the choir.
Perhaps the article might convince those undecideds like Jeff Jarvis, or a hawkish Dem friend of mine, who keep deluding themselves that Kerry will continue Bush’s foreign policy.
Oct 10, 2004 - 9:41 am 5. Howard:Because the Google run Blogger is completely down for the God-only-Knows what time, I cannot either blog or read blogger posts today, but these pieces of “multi-lateral Kerryism” make me want to scream.
However, who reads the New York Times anymore? The LA Times? More people hit Drudge in 12 hours than read either paper. The Times is fodder for the “Hamlet Liberals”, those people who will think about things for two and a half acts after their parents are killed rather than do something to stop more familial bloodshed. I can see Kerry alone at home mumbling, “Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I….” as he seeks useless friends to help him out of a problem.
For the last six months I have felt that this election will not be close no matter who wins, never forgetting that nobody reads MSM anymore without wondering if they are telling the truth or not.
Oct 10, 2004 - 9:47 am 6. Peter G.:” `I know Mubarak well enough to know what I think I could achieve in the messaging and in the press in Egypt,’ Kerry went on. ”
If he knows Mubarak well enough to tell him to shove it, I’m with him. But something tells me he’d rather be his friend and apologize.
“The only time I saw Kerry truly animated during two hours of conversation was when he talked about the ability of a president to build relationships with other leaders.”
I’m trying to envision what an animated Kerry looks like, never having seen it myself.
Oct 10, 2004 - 9:59 am 7. penwil:As a corrollary to this, the San Francisco Chronicle has an article this morning on how the far Left is planning to take over the Democratic Party whether Kerry wins next month or not. The article comes right out and says that the only thing keeping these groups allied with the centrists in the Democratic Party and supporting Kerry is their hatred of Bush. But their ultimate goal is to take over the party.
One telling bit from the article:
“We’re going to celebrate with John Kerry the night of Nov. 2. But the morning of Nov. 3, we’re going to start organizing to take the party away from him, because we have serious disagreements about what the party should stand for and where this country needs to go,”
Based on Kerry’s past and his true colors as betrayed in the NYT article, I would say the Left won’t have too much difficulty in moving him toward appeasement and even outright surrender to the Islamofacists.
via Besty’s page
http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/
Oct 10, 2004 - 10:23 am 8. ricpic:It never fails to stun that there are those whose political position (and cultural/social position) is set at age twenty — and never budges an inch. Set in amber as it were.
But there are. And they number in the millions.
Kerry is no more than a very prominent example of the breed.
Oct 10, 2004 - 10:27 am 9. Terrye:I really wish Kerry would just get up on a stage and say this:
I intend to go hat in hand to the UN and promise to do whatever it takes to make them like us again.
There is not a tyrant or thief anywhere I will not suck up to.
Anyone who has helped George Bush, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq or Pakistan can count on a knife in the back from me, whereas everyone else from France to Egypt can rest assured I will buy them off and kiss their collective asses.
This is what they tried for years and it was an utter failure what makes this silly bastard think it will be any different this time?
Oct 10, 2004 - 10:35 am 10. ricpic:Can anyone imagine Kerry being anything but paralyzed, if he is elected president and the Islamofascists test him immediately, as they certainly will? I can’t.
Oct 10, 2004 - 10:36 am 11. legion:These are people who consider the islamic radical terrorists to be allies of their cause. Of course they’ll use Kerry to gain power, then take over and pursue their own agenda.
Imagine, anti-americans in control of america. Vote for Kerry and watch it happen.
Oct 10, 2004 - 10:42 am 12. Jamie Irons:penwil
t= -2 hr till 49ers vs. Cards…
I can help.
Jamie Irons
Oct 10, 2004 - 11:03 am