2:01PM
Comment upgrade: Best candidate re: China?
Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 2:01PM Got this comment from Brandon Winters:
If the Bush administration is a lost cause on China, who would be a good candidate for President that would seek to engage, rather than contain China?Tom's answer:
(Can you guess it?)
(I'll 'hide' it in the comments, just for fun ;-)
Reader Comments (9)
Tom says: Clinton
What a tease.
i thought he said Bush Sr :)
I say Clark -- :)
I say Rudy
Tom: Hillary? Bill? Chelsea? George?
I'd disagree about Clinton because every time she would make a friendship building gesture, the obvious "sold out to China" line would be trotted out and all that old history would be raked up. The PRC (especially if any of that old history is actually true but even if its not) would not like that and would be leery of placing too much weight on any Clinton initiatives for fear that they would lose face should domestic politics make her initiative unsustainable.
On the PRC partnership front, I think that Bill has made Hillary damaged goods. It's fixable, like most things in politics. The cure may not be palatable to either the PRC or its friends. Hillary would have to have some "Sister Souljah" moments on the PRC to gain credibility on the domestic front and I'm reasonably sure that the PRC would not like being on the receiving end of those actions.
Clark is SECDEF when Hillary wins. That is carved in stone, I am told.
As for the selling-out charge, TM, you're in the wrong century. Gotta update the material.
Just to be clear, I'm saying the stick will be wielded and that it'll have some effect irrespective of whether it's true or not. Clinton bashers got replaced by Bush Derangement Syndrome and if Hillary wins we're in for another round of the same old game and the fallout is going to affect our ability to create a better relationship with the PRC.
Personally, I'd like to get the presidency out of both families as a Hillary presidency would get us 24-28 years of executive authority swapping between two families starting with GHWB. That's just too much irrespective of whether or not Hillary would be a good president. My own estimate is that she'd be pretty bad, but not as bad as some on the right fear.