If It Was So Obvious, Why Did He Have To Say It?

Joe Biden reassures Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi that, if elected, Kerry will support him.

"I personally was authorized by Kerry in front of all my colleagues to say the first thing in a private meeting. I said, 'Mr. President, you know me.' And he said, 'Yes, I do.' I said, 'I guarantee you that John Kerry as president -- you will continue to have the full support of the United States of America in order to be able to establish a representative republic.' He said, 'Thank you, and I know it."'

That was some smooth diplo-effort by the Kerry campaign.

A Helpful Hint to the Kerry side - even if you think Allawi is a puppet spouting Bush's lies, ask yourself two questions:

- what is our plan for working with this guy?

- who debunked Winston Churchill in the summer of 1940 when he assured and reassured the British people that, contrary to all appearances, victory was achievable? Sometimes perception drives reality, especially in the short run.

The proper response to Allawi - "The Prime Minister is a courageous man and a great statesman doing a difficult job made nearly impossible by the mistakes and miscalculations of the Bush Administration. We look forward to working with him to bring stability and democracy to Iraq, and we are committed to helping him realize the optimistic vision he has layed out today."

If Allawi was overly rosy in his assessment of Iraq, let someone else point it out - the press lives for this.

P.S. to Kerry people - if you need this advice from this source, it really is hopeless.

MORE: Filed under "Zut Alors!" - France and Germany tell us what we already knew - Read their lips, no new troops.

UPDATE: Hmm, maybe the Kerry people can take advice from Fareed Zakaria, writing in the Oct. 4 Newsweek:

For Kerry to succeed, he must find a way to root for American success as well. He should also ceaselessly praise the nation-building efforts of American soldiers in Iraq, which are in fact quite heroic. He was mistaken in reacting to Prime Minister Allawi's speech to Congress by belittling him. Instead he should have expressed solidarity with Allawi's goals. "Who among us does not wish that Prime Minister Allawi's dream of democracy in Iraq will be fulfilled?" he might have said, adding, "But the reality is that we are moving away from that dream every day, thanks to the monumental blunders of the Bush administration."

Yes, I am feeling quite pleased with the similarity in advice. In fact, I am typing with one hand, having dislocated my shoulder while patting myself on the back.

Comments

[ryan]

"Sometimes perception drives reality, especially in the short run."

That's exactly it, and exactly what you need to know to understand Kerry's comments. Perception can shape reality in the short run. Kerry's election concerns are the immediate short run. By questioning Allawi's legitimacy and even competence, one might destabilize Iraq even further in the short run; one might definitely be able to prevent it from improving (and certainly make Americans think it's getting even worse). A short-term disaster hurts Bush in the election, which therefore helps Kerry. Perception does not drive reality so completely in the long run, so they just need to start talking-up Iraq after Nov 3, and Kerry can then do whatever the hell it is he plans on doing in Iraq after winning the election. (Having Biden smooth things over with Allawi is also helpful -- let him know calling him a "puppet" is nothing personal, just politics, you know how it is)

Hey, as Hail Mary passes go ... okay, I got nothing. Still -- it's kind of empty, but if you figure you've got nothing to lose (and you assume that you're so obviously better that it's worth the short-term damage to help your election prospects, such that they are), well, okay, I still got nothing

[Bruce Berger]

It is beyond me that Kerry can be viewed as being of "presidential timber" when he denigrates the man that would be one of the most important, if not most important, foreign leaders he would be working with in the initial days of his presidency. Allawi is probably the most threatened person on the face of the earth. He deserves our unqualified support and graditude, provided he remains focused on bringing some form of representative government to his country.

This comment, combined with those of his supporters that refer to our allies in Iraq as the coalition of the coerced or bribed, demonstrates a total lack of seriousness, or judgement, on the part of the Kerry people. From what I can see Kerry's whole premise of why he should be president is that he would be more competent than the Bush administration. I highly doubt that is the case if these comments are representative of how Kerry and his team would govern.

[JM Hanes]

Anybody else think Joe Biden wants to be Secretary of State in the worst way?

[KBiel]

representative republic

Isn't that a little redundant, like "leftie asshat"?

[dick]

I can't accept that at all. Kerry should never have left it to someone else to make the comment about Allawi. Biden might have had the word given from Kerry as to what he would do but a real leader would have made the statement himself, not had someone else do it for him. It smacks to me of the things Carter's people had to do for him. He would make statements and then his people would come along behind him and tell us what he really meant. That is not the way of the leader, as Carter undoubtedly showed us, but that is obviously the way of Kerry and he is for damned sure not a leader.