A brief note on this brouhaha over whether some foreign leaders want president Bush turned out of office in November.
This is the topic of my column tomorrow in The Hill. So I just want to touch on it briefly.
Clearly, the president and his surrogates are hammering John Kerry now over this claim and even accusing him of making the whole thing up to hurt the president.
“Either [Kerry] is straightforward and states who they are,” said Scott McClellan, “or the only conclusion one can draw is that he is making it up to attack the president.”
Now, I don’t think there’s any question this was an unwise thing for Kerry to say, not least because it’s opened him up to all these attacks which are awkward to answer.
But the idea that he’s making this up is laughable. The question isn’t whether or which foreign leaders don’t want to see George W. Bush get another term. A better question is whether there are any outside of perhaps a half-dozen capitals around the world who do.
(Powell knows this perhaps better than anyone.)
The reason it’s unwise to say this — or at least say it so bluntly — is precisely because it’s so undoubtedly true. And the fact that it’s true is a difficult matter politically for both candidates.
