Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 3 September 2004
Watched Bush's film and then most of his speech last night and have to admit: this guy is neither out of touch like "41" nor ready and willing to lose this election like his old man did in '92. From a historical standpoint, I liked Bush's framing of today as being similar to the years following the end of WWII more than I did Kerry's framing of today from the perspective of Vietnam. I realize both reached back to history that serves them best personally in the race, but I think Bush's choice sits better with most Americans because it recalls a bold time, a bold vision, and a bold president.
On the other hand, the GOP convention did project much less passion than the Democratic one did. Yeah, the Republicans really want four more years, but the Dems really REALLY want Bush out.
And yet, as I predicted, already Iraq fades more than most expected as THE issue of the campaign. And with the various new struggles emerging (e.g., Russia's dark days with terrorism, France banning head scarves and telling terrorists they won't give in, the Nepalese rioting against Muslim churches and business after the beheadings in Iraq, South Korea now admitting it's dabbling in nuclear weapons grade uranium, Iran acting tough vis-‡-vis the IAEA), Bush's promise to be more straightforward and bold comes off better than Kerry's calculated nuancing. Frankly, that line about Kerry asking the UN for permission to use U.S. military force sticks in too many people's minds, reminding people of how Clinton's team let security matters linger unresolved for so long through his two terms. Bush's team is moving troops, shifting bases, and holding firm in Iraq, whereas Kerry's team is reduced to saying things like, "we wouldn't move so fast," "we'd do it more carefully," "we'd put off that decision for a later date." None of that really comes very well, in my mind.
Yes, I think the Dems would do better across the board in running the country, and I will vote for Kerry, but I suspect just enough of the undecideds out there will see a fairly scary world right now requiring a fairly bold president, so I think Bush and Cheney will squeak by. And the polls suggest that. Bush had a slight lead going into the convention, which isn't how a wounded president (like "41" in '92) looks when he's getting ready to be unseated.
I read the papers quickly today, because I am suffering a full-blown sinus infection that has me ready to use a power drill on my right cheekbone. So my threshold for, "Do I really care enough about that article to blog it?" was awfully high today. Simply put, I don't function well with sinus infections, so rather than try to offer a lot of bad analysis quickly just so I can say I did it, let me harken back to a healthier time in my life (early May) and enter into the record some stuff that apparently fell through the cracks in my otherwise consistent effort to make sure everything important that's been written about PNM makes it into the blog.
The stuff that fell through the cracks was a review of PNM by Steven Martinovich of Enter Stage Right. In addition to publishing this rather positive review, Martinovich interviewed me by email and posted that online as well. Amazingly, I forgot completely about both when it came to putting together the compilation pages of "Reviews with Author's Commentary" and "Print/online media interviews with Tom Barnett" with my webmaster Critt. Then again, I do seem to recall that the site was down right during the middle of my book tour, when these two items were posted, so maybe that's why I forgot all about them.
I remembered them recently only because I got an email from a guy names Ludovic Monnerat, apparently a Swiss Lt. Colonel who translated Martinovich's interview into French and posted it on CheckPoint, a "site d'information militaire Suisse." Monnerat sent me the article when I was in China, and when I read it, I remembered the Enter Stage Right materials and vowed to address them once I got back finally. So, now I'm doing it.
Here are the three posts then. I will comment on each separately:
Reviewing the Reviews (Enter Stage Right), posted 3 May 2004