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« A Warning | Main | Bad Advice » August 2, 2004Good Judgment Versus PoliticsWhile John Kerry mindlessly calls for the immediate adoption of every recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, President Bush is doing what a strong leader does when presented with such recommendation: He's carefully reviewing the recommendations and moving judiciously, trying to do the right thing for the country rather than the right thing for his political campaign. USA Today reports: President Bush plans today to begin implementing some of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission but will not completely embrace the panel's central proposal, creation of a national intelligence director based in the White House, according to administration officials with knowledge of the White House's deliberations.Here's the key paragraph of the story, one that should linger in your mind long after you finish reading this blog post: While Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is calling for swift enactment of all the commission's recommendations, Bush advisers say they don't want to endorse them wholesale without fully analyzing the consequences.Kerry's immediate endorsement of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations before he could possibly have read the Commission's entire 521-page report was a purely political move designed to seize political momentum that raises a few questions about Mr. Kerry's judgement. Is this how he plans to govern - by simply accepting whatever a "blue ribbon" commission suggests? If some of the recommendations were adopted and later backfired, would he accept responsibility for the failure, or would he blame the commission? And would he say he was for it before he was against it? Comments
Unless I mised it, you've failed to mention that at least a few of the commissions rec's are already being implimented. Posted by: Bithead at August 2, 2004 7:56 AMSen Kerry says rush right in and implement these changes with out due thought to the consequences. Here is another example of his FINE leadership abilities...give nuke fuel to Iran. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5570503/site/newsweek/The Difference Between Them John Kerry regards an Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism armed with nuclear weapons as unacceptable. He has a multiple-part strategy that is much more realistic than the Bush administration's. One is to rejoin and work through the international legal framework on arms control. That will give greater force to the major powers if they have to deal with violators. Secondly, he has laid out, I think in the most comprehensive way in modern memory, a program to secure nuclear materials around the world—particularly in the former Soviet Union but also in the places where research reactors have existed that could be susceptible to proliferation. The point is to try to prevent Iran from ever getting this material surreptitiously. Thirdly, he has proposed that rather than letting the British, the French and the Germans do this themselves, that we together call the bluff of the Iranian government, which claims that its only need is energy. And we say to them: "Fine, we will provide you the fuel that you need if Russia fails to provide it." Participating in such a diplomatic initiative makes it more likely to succeed. Posted by: Gail at August 2, 2004 8:27 AMWhat a ton of political ammo Kerry will have if there is an attack and Bush didn't implement some meaningless fragment of the 9/11 recommendations, though. Doing the right thing must be balanced with a bit of CYA; don't you think? Posted by: Jimmy at August 2, 2004 9:10 AMFrom page 318 of the report: Unfortunately, this didn't really make it into the recommendations section, however, to my mind, this is the one recommendation that I, as a citizen, can implement. As Glenn would say, "a pack, not a herd." Posted by: Allen at August 2, 2004 12:29 PMPost a comment
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