The line in the last post about "If John can't answer the question, we are in trouble" really gets me. It's a perfectly legitimate question -- what would Obama want to talk about? What would he hope or expect to gain? Let's pretend for a second that we're actually in the real world and not an episode of the post-Sorkin era West Wing; does Obama really think tea and crumpets with Ahmadinejad is going to yield anything even remotely worthwhile? Will he attempt to placate him with tales of his own hatred for George Bush? Will he apologise for the America his wife is so ashamed of?
These questions don't just need answers, they need explanations and depth and reason and logic -- they need Obama to start acting like a candidate for the highest office in the world, and to start explaining why he believes in the things he does. Unfortunately, all we are seeing just now is a guy applying the inane adage that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' to the rather delicate turf of international diplomacy. I don't know if it's because of naiveté or arrogance, but he seems to be forgetting that the people he wants to talk to don't hate George Bush or Dick Cheney or John McCain because of who they are, they hate them because of where they're from.
So what's next? Will he try to sell himself as the first 'post-American' President? You know, the more I read that last sentence, the scarier and altogether more plausible it sounds.
0 comments:
Post a Comment