Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Who Lost North Korea? (Hint: He Can't Say "Nuclear".)
We all knew this was coming. John "Keating Five" McCain once again drops his independent "straight talk" pose and rushes to do Bush's bidding like a good little consigilere. Today's task: Blaming Clinton -- a man who hasn't been near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in six years -- for Bush's failure to deal with North Korea. Not to be outdone in the Bush-sycophanting department, CNN's Wolf Blitzer carried GOP water on his show, too. McCain and Blitzer, of course, left out these facts from their respective spiels: When George H. W. Bush was in the White House, North Korea was actively seeking to build nukes and had one to two bombs’ worth of plutonium on hand. When Bill Clinton was in the White House, he used offers of economic aid -- offers that the Republican Congress fought tooth and nail -- to convince the North Koreans to suspend their nuclear program and get rid of their plutonium stocks. When George W. Bush entered the White House, his tough talk and general obnoxiousness caused the North Koreans to reactivate their nuclear program -- and now they have four to six nuclear weapons’ worth of plutonium. (The invasion of Iraq was an object lesson to states like North Korea: If you have oil and no nukes, Bush will invade you. If you have nukes and no oil, Bush leaves you alone.)
Here are AOL poll responses, as of 160,000-plus votes:
Do you agree with McCain's criticism of the former president?
No 52%
Yes 48%
What's motivating McCain to speak out?
Posturing for the 2008 White House race 42%
Combination of both 38%
Concern over the situation with North Korea 19%
So 80% of respondents see this as a cynical, self-serving move by McCain, and only 19% think he is motivated solely by concern for the country.
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