Tuesday, November 11, 2003
You know ...: There’s a part of me who wonders if Kerry’s campaign really is back on track. These are either professional political rats abandoning ship or professional political staff abandoning ship. There’s a sublime difference. ...
Update: Scot Lehigh thinks it's the latter. So much for getting back on track. ... Hmmmm. Am I the only one who thinks Kerry, long known for his admiration for (and self-comparisons to) John Kennedy, might be going a little overboard by making his candidacy a virtual subsidiary of Teddy Inc.? The new campaign hires may or may not be good tactical moves. I haven't a clue. But you gotta wonder how's it's going to strategically play in other parts of the country where the mere mention of Teddy's name sends people frothing. Just wondering.
‘Let’s get rid of this guy’: Michael Ignatieff, of Harvard’s JFK School of Gov’t, was clearly the most impressive panelist this afternoon at a big BU-hosted conference on U.S.-European relations, which Hub Blog attended as part of an aborted story (which is a long story). ... George Soros, another panelist, was an idiot, even though he’s obviously the trendy lefty capitalist of the moment -- and had the crowd behind him. Soros spoke out of both sides of his mouth at every step. He should have dominated the panel, considering the crowd. He didn’t. Overrated. Except for his money. ... Max Boot, another panelist, was an unbearable and robotic bore, spouting not a single line I haven’t already read twenty million times over at Andrew Sullivan, who has original thoughts. Boot is an intellectual leader of the neo-conservative/Pax America movement? It’s a movement in deeper trouble than I thought. ... Ken Adelman had some funny quips, but didn’t overly impress. ... But Ignatieff, well, here was a guy who almost seemed embarrassed by the Crossfire-type format that inadvertently developed at the conference. A genuine liberal who has stuck to his guns about the need to go into Iraq (post-Mission Accomplished disasters and all), Ignatieff is the type of moderate liberal Mickey Kaus once said Bush should have been reaching out to all along. ... Ignatieff, who was mini-profiled (once again with the link) in the Herald this morning, has a new novel out. But some quotes from the story:
"The part of the left's opposition to the war that I just didn't respect, frankly, was they were so opposed to Bush and the use of force that they actually were prepared to leave Saddam in power. And when it came to it I thought: ‘Let's get rid of this guy.’ ''
And:
"I'm a U.N. guy, but let's not fetishize the U.N. ... The U.N. did not authorize Kosovo, which I thought was a completely justified operation. It sat on its hands over Bosnia.”
At the BU conference, Ignatieff said there’s ample justification for America’s “cold contempt” for Europe’s non-action in Bosnia -- and Iraq. But he also said the Bush administration, which has been schizoid about the U.N., should bite the bullet and make the U.N. better by reforming it -- with a chief reform being putting India on the Security Council. He was terrific.
Update: Scot Lehigh thinks it's the latter. So much for getting back on track. ... Hmmmm. Am I the only one who thinks Kerry, long known for his admiration for (and self-comparisons to) John Kennedy, might be going a little overboard by making his candidacy a virtual subsidiary of Teddy Inc.? The new campaign hires may or may not be good tactical moves. I haven't a clue. But you gotta wonder how's it's going to strategically play in other parts of the country where the mere mention of Teddy's name sends people frothing. Just wondering.
‘Let’s get rid of this guy’: Michael Ignatieff, of Harvard’s JFK School of Gov’t, was clearly the most impressive panelist this afternoon at a big BU-hosted conference on U.S.-European relations, which Hub Blog attended as part of an aborted story (which is a long story). ... George Soros, another panelist, was an idiot, even though he’s obviously the trendy lefty capitalist of the moment -- and had the crowd behind him. Soros spoke out of both sides of his mouth at every step. He should have dominated the panel, considering the crowd. He didn’t. Overrated. Except for his money. ... Max Boot, another panelist, was an unbearable and robotic bore, spouting not a single line I haven’t already read twenty million times over at Andrew Sullivan, who has original thoughts. Boot is an intellectual leader of the neo-conservative/Pax America movement? It’s a movement in deeper trouble than I thought. ... Ken Adelman had some funny quips, but didn’t overly impress. ... But Ignatieff, well, here was a guy who almost seemed embarrassed by the Crossfire-type format that inadvertently developed at the conference. A genuine liberal who has stuck to his guns about the need to go into Iraq (post-Mission Accomplished disasters and all), Ignatieff is the type of moderate liberal Mickey Kaus once said Bush should have been reaching out to all along. ... Ignatieff, who was mini-profiled (once again with the link) in the Herald this morning, has a new novel out. But some quotes from the story:
"The part of the left's opposition to the war that I just didn't respect, frankly, was they were so opposed to Bush and the use of force that they actually were prepared to leave Saddam in power. And when it came to it I thought: ‘Let's get rid of this guy.’ ''
And:
"I'm a U.N. guy, but let's not fetishize the U.N. ... The U.N. did not authorize Kosovo, which I thought was a completely justified operation. It sat on its hands over Bosnia.”
At the BU conference, Ignatieff said there’s ample justification for America’s “cold contempt” for Europe’s non-action in Bosnia -- and Iraq. But he also said the Bush administration, which has been schizoid about the U.N., should bite the bullet and make the U.N. better by reforming it -- with a chief reform being putting India on the Security Council. He was terrific.
