The (a?) problem with bluffs can be two fold: (i) they have to be credible; and (ii) they lose suasion geometrically through overuse. Perhaps if the Israelis ran an exercise over Florida (synchronized with a NASCAR championship, that might be the last straw. But as it is, move along. Keep moving. Nothing to see here.
BUT, a deeper game is the psychology not of the Iranians (or Russians or Chinese), but U.S. Democrat donors and their Neocon counterparts staggering in the wilderness. Can these charades get them on board? (McCain doesn’t count as a challenge). The Iranians aren’t intimidated. For all the reasons we have discussed ad nauseam here. Would an Obama fold? We think it is not unreasonable to venture a 60-40% thing — after his visit on January 23rd. Tragically, his caving and eventual endorsement to such an adventure would merely be the book end of General Jello’s UN debacle.
Anon says
Hitch on Buchanan – Some good stuff, but Hitch is a bit at odds with some of the implications of some of his own earlier material. We have not read Pat’s book – we will when it comes out on paper or in the bins.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/141501/page/3
Comment says
Not that we approve of endless political calculation – Just on the issues where it is simply impossible to stake out novel and/or creative opinions and then actually win elections. Obama has already pressed too many novel ideas, imo, for his electoral good – esp as the first black Prez. He is, after all, having to deal with a long running assumption in the MSM that the first black President had to be a Powell type bore. Is he the most liberal? Probably not. Boxer seems more liberal, so does Sanders and Feingold and Kennedy and some others – But recall Kerry used to be the most liberal – for a month or so. Anyway, Obama has to deal with the reality of this stuff in the media. IMO, it’s all BS. But he has to do what he he has to do.
We are certainly happy to see David Brooks and some goo goo edit pages saddened by his rejection of public money for his campaign – Serves St. John right to see his campaign impaled on his own campaign finance demagoguery.
Comment says
Obama will do what he has to do to win – or not lose. He is not interested in losing. Asking for creative foreign policy in the campaign greater than the morsels of danger he has already offered, is just not realistic imo. Comment heartily, but sadly, approves of his caving on Telco liability too.
Until he can press his agenda, he is a prisoner of events and must react.
His conventional Brookings-stuffed FP team (albeit temporarily Holbrookless) is an electoral necessity. With his many vulnerabilities, these accommodations are understandable and inevitable. Maybe Ron Paul or Barr can find an opening.