Mickey Kaus observes:
What was troubling about Biden’s loin-girding gaffe . . . wasn’t the idea that Obama would be tested. It was the notion that we shouldn’t worry because he has Joe Biden as his backup! (“I’ve forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know.”) … And here I was giving Biden a pass for his “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do” resume-inflating, campaign-ending 1988 embarrassment. … P.S.: It’s Obama’s fault. Obama picked him. It was a hack choice with known dangers, which are even now being realized.
Well, aside from suggesting an underlying lack of faith in the ability of his boss to get it right, Biden does reveal his assumption that he as VP would be there to set things right. Whoa. Didn’t Democrats spend eight years lambasting George W. Bush for subcontracting his presidency to Dick Cheney?
There’s nothing wrong with deferring to your VP, I suppose, but then Obama should be honest and let the voters assess not his own judgment, but Biden’s. If the answer, once in office, to each international challenge and crisis is “Go ask Joe” we should know this. And then Biden’s views on partitioning Iraq and his host of foreign policy misjudgments over the years become a whole lot more relevant.
But if Obama is going to be master of his own administration and not let his VP run the show, it might be a good idea to tell the voters — not to mention Biden — right now. Then we can write off Biden as an irrelevant blowhard instead of an immensely powerful and dangerous one.
Mom Blogs – Blogs for Moms…
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Showing just a part time interest in North Korea hits the spot. It is exactly the right way to approach the problem. We are not really interested We have no interest in crawling up Kim jung Ils behind. We are not going to buy him off and off and off.
It is up to China to put him in a headlock. China must decide whether she wants a forth nuclear power on her doorstep, whether she wants to force Japan into equipping herself with nuclear missiles and a submarine fleet, whether she want to spur South Korea and possibly Taiwan into doing the same.
A part time envoy sends our message perfectly.
fourth
Man, so it’s NOT just Chrissy Hill who’s completely upgescrewed abt China’s concerns & interests regarding the Korean peninsula and East Asia in general.
#2 Yes, a part time envoy sends our message perfectly. Much in the way that putting a community activist in the white house sends a message to Iran. Unfortunately, a deeply worrisome message.
Steven from Indiana
While it is worth debating whether special envoys make sense to begin with (what are all the ambassadors and under-secretaries for anyway?)in fact, president Bush’s envoy (Jay Lefkowitz of Commentary fame) served in that post on a part-time basis.
Bosworth can always have his grad students do the ‘diplomacy’. Maybe even a couple of post docs.
#7
post-docs – especially those who fear for funding – are excellent deterrents…
after all, what defines – and who defines – ‘smart power’ better than a post-doc?
Eli is right. See this story on former President Bush’s appointment of Jay Lefkowtiz: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEEDC103EF933A1575BC0A9639C8B63
Relevant graf:
“Mr. Lefkowitz, a former domestic policy adviser to Mr. Bush and now a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, will work several days a week out of an office in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He will not leave his position at Kirkland & Ellis, but is expected to make a trip to Asia, possibly including North Korea, this fall.”
…I don’t mean to imply that such a thing is okay. On the contrary, I think President Obama is just as wrong as former President Bush to employ a part-time NK envoy.
Actually, I approve of this.
The “dialogue” between ourselves, the South Koreans and the North Koreans is such a joke, such a waste of time, ——————— that it’s good that the guy involved have his mind elsewhere. For were he devoted all of his time and energy to the idea of discussing things with the North, then he might actually be tempted to take it seriously.
Much better to have a guy involved who think it’s something to occupy non-essential hours.
Down below in Commentary Gordon Chang worries about the Chinese scoring prestige points on us because Hillary didn’t make an issue of human rights. By the same token we’re scoring major prestige points by providing only a part time Special Envoy to spend major time in the cold of North Korea toadying up to Kim Il Sung. Meanwhile we probably have a half dozen full time Special Envoys assigned to enjoy the beaches of Jamaica.
Get real. We may need a covert operations guy assigned to arrange Kim’s removal or a shrink to evaluate his mental state; but assigning a high domed talker to relate to him is ridiculous.
Does Curtis LeMay have children? Making one of them the envoy to N. Korea is the kind of “head game” we should be engaging in. Then again, Clinton as Secretary of State is a kind of ultimate “head game.” Just the words “Clinton” and “head” in the same sentence must give the mullahs nightmares.
Steven from Indiana
And with Lefkowitz, despite the high profile President Bush assigned to promoting his creation of the post, he was essential impotent from the start.
Why hire someone full-time when you want him to do nothing?
— Want him to do nothing to the point that even people like myself who pay attention to Korea forgot the position even existed.