Foreign policy

Daniel Larison as already done yeoman work dismantling elements of David Gelernter's appalling piece in The Weekly Standard. But more needs to be done and, that being the case, let's have at it in this and a number of posts to follow. Gelertner's piece, cheerily headlined "Defeat at Any Price" makes the case, natch, that Democrats and liberals in the United States want to see America defeated in Iraq. Of course, they're devilishly clever and never actually come out and say this (Gelertner declines to buttress his case with any quotations from Messrs Clinton, Obama, Edwards et al that would support his claim that they believe "America would be better off if it lost"). Nonetheless, being in thrall to "Appeasement, pacifism and globalism" Democrats want to see America laid low.

Steve Chapman hears Joe Biden ask a decent question: At each of his four stops today, there was a moment when he got the attention of his audience. It came when he noted, ruefully, that he's often mentioned as a possible secretary of state in a Democratic administration. "I have a rhetorical question for you," he said in Algona. "Are you prepared to vote for anybody for president who isn't capable of being secretary of state?" He went on: "If you're not capable of being secretary of state, are you capable of being president in 2008?" Now obviously the Secretary of State is, in these post-Kissinger times, somewhat akin to being the chief Presidential envoy.

As so often I'm late to a brouhaha. The vexed question of the day is whether American Democrats should call themselves Progressives or Liberals. Well, the former has some advantages, not the least of which being that it would allow Adam Smith's admirers to reclaim the liberal banner and wave it with ever-greater gusto. Still, it's noticeable that the discussion has revolved around such trendy notions as labelling and framing. Where policy has got a look in it's been in terms of the party's domestic agenda. But Progressivism was scarcely silent on foreign policy either. Indeed, when I hear the term I'm reminded of Speak softly, but carry a big stick and I am going to teach [them] to elect good men.