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| A continent divided: Half of Europe is leaning to Kerry. But it's the wrong half |
| 2004-08-22 |
| ...Take the question of who supports Kerry. Spain's Zapatero (who holds office partly by courtesy of Osama bin Laden) is the only head of government who has openly declared for Kerry. But France's Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder are silently in Kerry's corner. And most Scandinavian and socialist leaders join them there. Britain's Tony Blair and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, however, have a clear interest in Bush's re-election. His defeat would weaken them at home. And their support for Bush is shared by some leaders in countries like Poland, Hungary, Latvia and even Holland who have taken major political risks to put troops in Iraq. Kerry is oblivious to all this. In particular, he seems not to realize that he and his fellow Democrats have been repeatedly insulting the 15 European countries in the U.S.-led Iraq coalition. Although they include some of the leading military powers in the EU and NATO, they were dismissed at the Boston convention as "countries you can buy on eBay." That kind of thing rankles at least as much as Donald Rumsfeld's "Old Europe" -- and it annoys America's friends rather than its rivals... |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Kerry thinks he is a big internationalist because he speaks French. He goes on and on about France and Germany etc as allies because he is looking for votes from the LLL. If he thought he could get votes by pandering to the small emerging European nations, he would do so. He weathervanes with the winds. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-08-22 11:49:03 AM |
| #3 Oblivious? I wonder. Are Kerry and his fellow Democrats complete, utter idiots? Or are they cynical manipulators who figure that they can say and do just about anything, no matter how asinine ad outrageous, and the MSM will obediently refrain from criticising them? Either way, if I were the leader of any of the countries that are part of what the Dems called a "fraudulent coalition" and a "coalition of the bribed and coerced," I don't think I'd be rooting for Kerry. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-08-22 9:00:44 AM |
| #2 sorry, I know rantburgers are a busy group. I should have shortened the above article to this: "Kerry is oblivious.." |
| Posted by: B 2004-08-22 7:55:25 AM |
| #1 Good article: "To judge from how often he talks about Europe, however, Kerry thinks that European support is an electoral bonus as well as a diplomatic one. His theory seems to be that if he is elected, he can rely on the European "allies" to help the U.S. in Iraq and elsewhere -- and that the American people, knowing this, will vote for him and multilateralism. But his theory rests on the unstated and shaky assumption that "Europe" equals France and Germany. To be fair, "Europe" did mean France and Germany until yesterday. *snip* there are several "European" views on most issues. Britain's Tony Blair and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, however, have a clear interest in Bush's re-election. His defeat would weaken them at home. And their support for Bush is shared by some leaders in countries like Poland, Hungary, Latvia and even Holland who have taken major political risks to put troops in Iraq. Kerry is oblivious to all this. In particular, he seems not to realize that he and his fellow Democrats have been repeatedly insulting the 15 European countries in the U.S.-led Iraq coalition. Although they include some of the leading military powers in the EU and NATO, they were dismissed at the Boston convention as "countries you can buy on eBay." That kind of thing rankles at least as much as Donald Rumsfeld's "Old Europe" -- and it annoys America's friends rather than its rivals." |
| Posted by: B 2004-08-22 7:48:59 AM |