Bill Kristol—In Anticipation
I have no idea what Bill Kristol will pontificate about tomorrow in his much-awaited Monday, New York Times column…I can’t wait
But, if it is about Obama’s astoundingly successful overseas tour, I have no doubt that he will join the chorus of nay-saying, right-wing pundits and that he will have at best some sarcastic, sour-grapes observations and, at worse, various disparaging, condescending “analyses.”
But, I could be wrong. I hope so.
You may or may not remember that last week, in anticipation of Obama’s appearance at Berlin’s Siegessäule, Kristol demurely had to admit that Obama would be “well-received.” He said in “No Substitute for Victory”: “I’ll go out on a limb and say that Barack Obama will be well received when he speaks in Berlin on July 24.” and he reluctantly added, “O.K., it’s not exactly a limb. A recent poll shows that the German public prefers Obama to John McCain by 67 percent to 6 percent.”
Kristol’s “limb” turned out to be a massive, indestructible, “old-Europe”, oak tree.
“Well-received?” Talk about an understatement: 200,000 cheering Europeans—two or three more that McCain had when he shared a bratwurst at a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and where he was heard grumbling something about his “Truppenverstärkung.”
Last Monday, Kristol had some advice for Obama:
Perhaps Obama — with the Victory Column at his back — will also challenge those who think it impossible to imagine victory today. Perhaps Obama will also warn of the temptation of assuming we can somehow avoid confronting the terrorists and jihadists, and those who support them.
And,
Surely he will express pride — whatever his judgment as to the prudence of the effort, and whatever his judgment as to whether it has been worth the cost — in the efforts of American servicemen and women, and those from our coalition partners, who have fought and sacrificed, along with countless Afghans and Iraqis, against those who would kill and subjugate their fellow human beings. And surely he will pledge our continued commitment to the cause of victory in this struggle.
In a post earlier this week, (“Obama Will Do Just Fine at the Siegessäule”), responding to Kristol’s advice, I said:
Mr. Kristol ought not to worry. Senator Obama will eloquently and convincingly address victory in the real war on terrorism, just as President Obama will convincingly achieve victory over the “terrorists and jihadists, and those who support them“ by effectively dealing with them where they are and have always been and without taking his eye off the ball
As a matter of fact, in a lead article, on July 25, none other than the Financial Times Deutschland (as translated in Watchingamerica.com) said:
Obama’s speech in Berlin was an advertisement for the cooperative struggle against terrorism. For the German government, that’s a clear sign he expects more German participation. In the long term, the United States won’t accept the fact that it alone is doing the fighting against the Taliban while the Germans play the role of those nice guys helping the reconstruction effort.
And,
A President Obama would not only find military assistance helpful, but a sharing of the financial burden would also go a long way toward helping America, now suffering a financial crisis, to remain capable of action. The German Parliament will decide this fall to increase the number of German troops in Afghanistan by 1,000 to a total of 4,500. Obama will ask for more, including the deployment of German troops to the dangerous southern part of the country.
This doesn’t sound like ignoring terrorism or advocating defeat in the real war on terrorism, or of being afraid to ask our European allies to pitch-in in this struggle.
I believe that Senator Obama more than met the “challenge” posed by Kristol, not only at the Siegessäule, but also in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Israel, Jordan, Paris and London.
Whether Obama’s words will meet Kristol’s “exigent” (i.e. partisan) criteria, remains to be seen. Personally, I doubt it, but I could and would like to be pleasantly surprised.
As I said, I don’t know if Kristol will be addressing Obama’s tour; but if he does, and he decides to showcase his German I hope he comes up with a little more original and a little less personally offensive cliché than his right-wing buddies’ “Ich bin ein hypocriet.”
And I hope that he will not use the flawed, tired intimation that an American politician’s popularity in Europe inevitably results in suspicion and resentment in America’s “heartland.” America and Americans deserve better credit and respect than that.
11 Responses to “Bill Kristol—In Anticipation”
I read a post from a German paper today in which the author indicated that yes Obama will be well received in Berlin but that when it comes to asking the Germans to anti up they will politely say not only no but “HELL NO”
In the end Germans will still be Germans with their own best interests at heart and Americans will still be Americans. The likely outcome seems to be that the left in America wants to concede things to Germany in the name of friendship.
Like what? Anti Up Germany? Barak Obama in his speech asked the Germans to step up and anti up on the war on terror and more specifically on the war in Afghanistan and the crowd was stone cold silent.
In the end Barak Obama will piss of the Germans just like Bush did because in the end Barak Obama has or should have the best interests of America at heart and those interests might or might not have the best interests of Germany at heart.
The problem is that the Obama supporters unrealistically believe they are one in the same and they are not. Germany wants nothing to do with the war on terror or Afghanistan and despite honoring their nato obligations they have made their intentions clear to a fault.
Between Bush, McCain and Obama, who do you think may have better success in convincing the Germans (and the Euorpeans) to “anti-up”?
I personally believe that no one should anti up and that we should all come home. I do not see a need to escalate in Afghanistan like Barak Obama wants to do
OBL should be a police Action and if people over there really want freedom, democracy and a non taliban type government then let them fight for it themselves..
Wow, that doesn't sound “neocon” at all.
Thats cause Im not a neocon. Im a democrat turned libertarian who is antiwar but does not march in the streets or call the current administration names. I just believe that enough blood has been shed over 911.
How many more have to die before we have exacted our reckoning?
One does not have to walk in the streets to call the adminstration “names” it so rightly deserve…and no additional blood needs to be shed. Just little electronic or physical marks at the ballot “boxes”
Ante up.
Well I think your misleading yourself. Mr. Obama seems to want to escalate Afghanistan. So it sounds like there is s still a lot of blood left to shed in Mr. Obama's eyes. He just wants his turn at the helm as he screams Yipppeee Kai Yeah………and leads us off to more death and destruction in Afghanistan.
With regard to whether or not Obama “will meet Kristol’s “exigent” (i.e. partisan) criteria”, I expect results to be grudging at best. Had the situation been reversed, and an R candidate was being received this well in Europe, we all know the event would be trumpeted and held up as a second coming by those who are now criticizing Obama. It's pretty amusing really.
Kristol's column is out. He says nary a word about Obama's trip except to mention how presumptuous an editorial in a German newspaper was.
His piece was a veritable psychological smorgasbord. He wanders from being afraid, to disappointed, to cheery, to morose. He's a sensitive one that Bill.
But his main point was that one should vote for McCain so as to ensure a divided government. There were two things I found interesting in that. First, for him to make such a plea one has to assume he's conceding that the GOP is going to get its clock cleaned in the House and Senate. Second, it seems to me he would be hard-pressed to come up with a worse example to back up his plea, because it argues for exactly the opposite. In the 1948 elections the people rejected a divided government. They didn't vote a divided government in, they voted a dead-locked and ineffective one out.
He must have missed that detail.
Ricorun
Moving slowly towards change is much better then rushing headlong into change that is WRONG.
Most everyone assumes that the GOP is going to get its clock cleaned come november. Most of us are terrified at having a bumbling Barak Obama in power unchecked with a cloture proof senate and unsurpassed power in a time when he is openly advocating the escalation of hostilities in Afghanistan with the possibility of going into Pakistan and a democratic party standing behind him going
Yippeeee Kai yeah…………….lets rock.