Friedman misses the point
Friedman comes up with a halfway decent suggestion if some measure of sanity prevailed in this country: why not Bush 41 instead of the anti-UN Bolton?
However, that misses the point of this exercise entirely... the nomination of Bolton wasn't truly about making the best choice for American interests or "reforming" the UN... the true purpose was 3-fold:
1) Get Bolton out of people's hair at State and the NSC while providing a salve for getting passed over for the NSD job
2) Make political hay by kicking around the UN during the nomination process and, if confirmed, via his ambassadorship... "reform" as the Bushies would have it is about the same as when they use the term for social security: get rid of it
3) Give the finger to the UN, the Dems, and to the world at large by tossing in a human grenade who doesn't care about his reputation and the things he says about or to the UN
Friedman misses this by a mile... he even goes as far as to suggest that they should consider Clinton if Daddy isn't up to the task, which may be the most laughable notion I have heard in some time given their hardline "ABC" (Anything But Clinton) approach to all issues.
And why would Poppy ever want the job? He and his son don't really like each other, and they certainly don't have the same views on foreign policy... it would be pure torture for him to subborn himself to his son.
posted by DHP @ 10:47 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
What evidence do you have that 41 and 43 don't really like one another? I've heard that before, but I haven't ever seen anything that starts to prove it.
Google around for some stuff... there is quite a bit out there. The central idea is that Dubya had a tough time living up to his father's legacy: his father was an athletic and good student at Yale, W was far from it; 41 was a war hero while W shirked national guard duties; W was an abject failure at business ventures, etc. etc.
W was also a drunk for some time, and, as could be suspected, 41 rode him for it. This drove 43 up a wall, and during one drunk event apparently wanted to come to blows with 41 (others intervened)
Since then, the drive behind his political life has been a perverse mix of proving himself to 41 (Iraq)while undoing his legacy (ignoring internationalism, piss-poor domestic policy, etc.) Not that 41 was any great shakes, but he would have been vastly preferable to 43 on the basis of his robust internationalism alone.
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