Watching it all fall apart at once

[babylonsister]

Watching it all fall apart at once
Posted July 22nd, 2008


Matt Yglesias had a very good item this morning, noting the “debacle” for the Republican approach to foreign policy.

{McCain had} spent, several weeks with the main theme of his campaign being, quite literally, to criticize Barack Obama for not having been physically present in Iraq recently. This (of course) got Obama to go to Iraq, thus setting up a dilemma. Either Obama would survey the “progress” in Iraq and change his position, thus making him a flip-flopper, or else he would refuse to change his position, thus making him obstinate and out of touch with reality.

But instead of either of those things happening, Obama went to Iraq and Iraqi leaders said he’d been right all along! That’s about as close to “game, set, match” as you get in terms of real world events influencing your political campaign. What’s more, given the domestic situation and John McCain’s inability to talk about domestic issues persuasively, he can’t afford to play for a draw on Iraq.

Quite right. David Kurtz added how surprised he is to see “just how complete the Republican collapse on foreign policy has been in the short span of just a few weeks.” Kurtz noted that it’s “hard to think of any recent historical parallels.”

I’d just add that it goes beyond just Iraq. Over the last couple of months, the entire GOP foreign policy — the strategy, the worldview, the assumptions, the tactics — has crumbled to the point of destruction. The Bush administration bucked the McCain approach and adopted the Clinton policy to reach an accord with North Korea. McCain endorsed Obama’s policy on Afghanistan. Bush established the most direct diplomatic efforts with Iran since 1979. Just today, the administration sounded very Obama-esque in reaching out to Syria, which would have been unthinkable a year ago. Hell, the Bush administration is even distributing memoranda, telling officials to stop using language such as “jihadists,” “mujahedeen,” and “Islamo-fascism.”

And what’s left? To hear McCain tell it, the surge.

snip//

And the surge is supposed to be the saving grace? McCain got the big question wrong, and was half-right about a tactical decision after supporting a half-decade of failure? Please.

At this point, McCain has nothing to fall back on. His surrogates, desperate to find something, have fallen back to, “Oh yeah, well he’s still inexperienced!”

It’s the wholesale collapse of the Republican foreign policy. Let’s see if voters notice.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16284.html

[Demeter]

1. I Can Name A Recent Parallel Collapse

The whole world economy, with special note of the US part, has also crumbled in the space of a few weeks, and been going on since before the surge, too!

[monmouth]

2. McCain would do himself a real favor if he just went the hell home

and took a long nap. Every time he opens his mouth he just looks older, dumber, grouchier and well.....more incompetent than usual. Go home John, get retirement plans lined up.....

[glitch]

7. They need to spring an awesome VP (guess what, they don't have one) and promise McCain will be a

figurehead, which would only piss him off more. So they are screwed if they stick with attempting the appearance of legitimate retention of power.
Unfortunately they are quite capable of resorting to violence when the appearance of legitimacy looks like it won't succeed.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Obama always said international relations were his strong suit.

That confidence concomitant with McCain having a teensy bit of trouble with just the geography in the region makes the foreign policy debate really, really interesting. The GOP's claim that they have superior foreign relations credentials is collapsing like a bad souffle.

[babylonsister]

4. Yes, and that was their strong point. They must be feeling pretty

deflated right about now. :D

[Egnever]

5. It sucks that the public can only think in black and white 30 second soundclips

there's much more going on here than just a surge in troops and its sad that obama has to force them to look at and accept that fact.

[InternalDialogue]

6. Every single snippet of your post is music to my ears, Sister

I think we're witnessing a supreme example of honesty, intelligence and integrity going toe-to-toe with the gamesmanship, spin and full-scale politicization of everything military and economic for the past seven and a half years.

Even if, as you highlight in your post, voters don't "notice," I think there's something intestinal about what we're seeing over the past two days. Something feels right, and that hardened, hidden part of America is cheering it on.

[babylonsister]

8. I hope you're right, IDialogue. We're seeing this unfold, but are

those who should/need to be paying attention doing so? Not likely. The only positive is I don't see the rethug situation improving.

[applegrove]

9. They are desperate. I'm sure there will be new attacks on Obama tomorrow.