Koziumi is the Gorbachev of Japan

■"Japan's Koizumi Breaks the Mold: In a Nation Geared to Consensus, Premier Banks on Personal Charisma to Win New Mandate," by Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, 10 September 2005, p. A18.

The Liberal Democrat Party now headed by PM Koziumi has led Japan for the past half century, losing power only once, which places it second to China, whose ruling party has yet to lose power in it's half century or so (then again, you could say it did lose power under Mao's insane Cultural Revolution-so I'm tempted to call them even).

I don't mean that facetiously. The opposition Democratic party in Japan can do little to really reform Japan. If the ruling party can't manage it on its own, it can't be done. So what Koziumi is doing in Japan right now is not unlike Gorbachev trying to right that other socialist state, the USSR, from within a generation ago. Also like Gorby, Koziumi must inevitably win by losing: he needs to push through very difficult reforms that will likely cost his party its power base and send the country down the path toward something much closer to a competitive party system instead of the single-party state it has truly been for its entire postwar history.

That, my folks is serious leadership and serious vision. You look at him and Blair and their big visions for the future and you wonder what you would describe as Bush's.

I mean that seriously. What is Bush's vision other than the GWOT? I'm beginning to think David Ignatius is right: Bush the hedgehog has one idea and one idea only. Nice when the crises match up to the vision, but when they don't, you start missing the fox-like Clinton and his ability to juggle.