Letters to the Editor
-
Humiliation or death--that is the question
The candidates' response to the question about meeting with hostile leaders during the first year in office hardly required a recitation of the rules of diplomacy--a given. Obama, who answered first, chose to emphasize his openness to resuming dialogues with leaders on our s--t list. Better to talk with the devil than to rush into war anyday.
But Ms. Clinton, on guard for the question that she could reframe in her favor, recast it using Obama's brief response as a negative. I thought her tactic misleading, in that she deliberately misinterpreted Obama's response, and grossly condescending. To suggest that Obama is some dunce who doesn't understand how these encounters are set up was insulting and then to go on and on with a pedant's recitation of diplomacy 101 was a bore. I also thought her response a bit odd. I'd never heard a president talk about being afraid that another leader might use or exploit him as a reason for not engaging in diplomacy. In fact, I can't even imagine a male candidate for president express fear over losing control of a diplomatic mission.
I'm glad to see Obama finally pushback-- he's not far behind her in points and his fundraising indicates a lot of support that may only be too timid to declare itself to polls. Clearly not thinking enough moves ahead, Ms. Clinton, in her zeal to find a weakness, only ended up giving Obama more media attention to hammer away at hers:
Isn't it better to risk peace by talking to repugnant leaders than to guarantee the deaths of thousands of people by rushing into war? His retort that the greater error was to not only go along with Bush's view of Iraq without questioning it, but also to compound the error by promoting the war as the right solution to colleagues and citizens effectively blunted the sword wielded by the pedantic Mrs. Bill. That her greatest fear is of being used or exploited by talking to the enemy (sounds like a personal thing to me) when it should be instead of the consequences of not risking dialogue and an opportunity for peace clearly revealed her lack of bravado--and of self-confidence.