Being Senator Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Matt Welch | August 28, 2008

Nothing more unintentionally entertaining than a career U.S. senator speaking with utter ironclad certainty that whatever foreign policy he favors this year, it's 100 percent correct, 100 percent better than his opponent's, and, well, let's not look to closely under that voting record, shall we?

There were many puzzling passages in Joe Biden's speech tonight (the emergence of India as a "great power" is helping making America "less secure and more isolated"? What?), but this Georgia bit is stuck in my muffin:

In recent days, we've once again seen the consequences of this neglect with Russia's challenge to the free and democratic country of Georgia. Barack Obama and I will end this neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions, and we'll help the people of Georgia rebuild.

I've been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms: this administration's policy has been an abject failure.

Is the problem really that the Bush administration neglected Georgia? Dude danced there a couple years back, threw a lot of below-the-radar support to the Rose Revolution, and his alleged Siamese twin John McCain knows that country more than just about any U.S. senator.

The foreign policy problem here isn't neglect, but something closer to the opposite: In meddling (knowledgeably!) in the affairs of a formerly soviet state with unresolved civil wars involving populations sympathetic to Russia, Bush might have (and McCain probably will) mistakenly egged on Russia. Obama, in fact, slammed McCain for showing disproportionate bluster.

So what does Biden say? "Barack Obama and I will end this neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions." Well, Joe, how, exactly? And how is Obama's support for Georgia's entrance into NATO any different than McCain's?

At any rate, Biden is always good for a laugh. But with too many senators chasing too few White House jobs, there's going to be a lot of confident nonsense spoken about how and when America should, to paraphrase Biden's son, stare down the Slobodan Milosevices of the world.

Comments

|8.28.08 @ 12:35AM|#

just what i expect from another lame politician biden blowing sunshine up our ass about how obama will correct every single major problem facing america, yet offering not even the smallest hint of how. i know the point of the speech really wasn't to offer solutions per se, but it seems to me biden is writing a check neither him nor obama's ass can cash.

|8.28.08 @ 12:50AM|#

and we'll help the people of Georgia rebuild.

What?!! Another goddamned country we're supposed to rebuild? What the fuck is wrong with these bastards - when are we gonna rebuild our own?

=====================

i know the point of the speech really wasn't to offer solutions per se, but it seems to me biden is writing a check neither him nor obama's ass can cash.

It's not his nor Obama's ass they're planning to use - it's ours!

zach|8.28.08 @ 12:50AM|#

I'm especially curious about this line: "Our debt to our parents and our grandparents is too great, our obligation to our children too sacred." As to who's speech it came from.

Looking forward to Obama "rocking the house" tomorrow.

|8.28.08 @ 12:52AM|#

whose*

Deus ex Machina|8.28.08 @ 1:08AM|#

Is the problem really that the Bush administration neglected Georgia? Dude danced there a couple years back, threw a lot of below-the-radar support to the Rose Revolution, and his alleged Siamese twin John McCain knows that country more than just about any U.S. senator.

Don't forget the fact that Bush was nearly assassinated the last time he visited.

Nick|8.28.08 @ 2:29AM|#

"the emergence of India as a "great power" is helping making America "less secure and more isolated"? What?"

But...we all know how much Biden obviously hates Indians, right?

|8.28.08 @ 4:01AM|#

Joe Biden is about to go down as the male Geraldine Ferraro. Or the male John Edwards.

Other Matt|8.28.08 @ 4:20AM|#

"Barack Obama and I will end this neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions." Well, Joe, how, exactly?

Hush, don't confuse things with details. Just keep repeating "Change!"

MJ|8.28.08 @ 7:14AM|#

Three out of the four (so far) candidates for the Executive are serving Senators. Again, another indication of how bizarre this election is turning out. All of these people are legislative gasbags, not a shred of experience at actually running something responsibly. This should not be happening this way.

So much arrogance, so little to justify it.

|8.28.08 @ 8:17AM|#

As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. And for the last seven years, the administration has failed to face the biggest the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India's great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror.

As you can see, Biden didn't say that the rise of India had left us lest secure and more isolated. In the same paragraph, he mentioned Bush's policies leaving us less secure and more isolated, as well as the fact that Bush had failed to deal with the biggest forces shaping the new century, one of which is the rise of India.

It would be just as accurate to report that Biden thinks India is a font of "the resurgence of fundamentalism" - that is, not at all.

|8.28.08 @ 8:23AM|#

And how is Obama's support for Georgia's entrance into NATO any different than McCain's?

That's actually a pretty easy question to answer.

McCain says we should have brought Georgia into NATO two years ago, "as is."

Obama says NATO and Georgia should work out a road map for their inclusion. This was the process that was followed for the inclusion of Poland, and is similar to how the EU adds new countries - it generally involves establishing a set of political, governmental, and military reforms. Presumably, these would include a negotiated settlement of ongoing disputes.

brint|8.28.08 @ 8:58AM|#

We ignored Russia and started camping out on their doorstep and they just pulled the broom out of the breadbox...time to clear some brush. Biden would have lit the poo on fire, man, real fire. And Russia would get shitty shoes. Instead, they get a clean porch and we're yelling from the neighbor's yard: "Turn on the hose, dude, we need it. We NEED it!"

"Change" isn't possible. We're in the pit, man. Walls slippery, can't get out. You spray paint "Change" on the wall to get the chicks, you don't do it to make money. And this shit is all about money. So The O will try to keep the train rolling but he's gotta promise to steer onto the interstate to get the wheel, but trains don't run that way man, they're on tracks!

anon|8.28.08 @ 9:00AM|#

Biden is completely out of touch with reality, no matter how much people spin it.

|8.28.08 @ 9:03AM|#

Who can argue with such impeachable logic and evidence?

One of the defining features of spin is the lack of backup.

|8.28.08 @ 10:24AM|#

Not to be a rabble-rouser, but didn't Georgia start this conflict by attacking South Ossetia and Russian "peace" keepers?

When you're the biggest badass on the planet, you can invade sovereign regions and get away with it. When you're a dinky little republic sharing a border with Russia, not so much.

Before we blame Bush for all this, perhaps we should inquire as to whether the US was even consulted before Georgian troops bombarded Tskhinvali. It isn't Bush's fault every time a petty tyrant goes up against a powerful tyrant and loses.

|8.28.08 @ 10:53AM|#

Not to be a rabble-rouser, but didn't Georgia start this conflict by attacking South Ossetia and Russian "peace" keepers?

Probably not. Reports on the ground indicate that the South Ossetian separatists fired first, after the Russians had conveniently relocated a big chunk of their army into the neighborhood for "exercises".

|8.28.08 @ 12:57PM|#

All sides in Georgia appear to have engaged in exactly the sort of "now's our chance!" thinking that John McCain displayed after 9/11.