A low-intensity political argument broke out when few of us got together Monday night for dinner at a Cuban restaurant to celebrate somebody’s birthday. A pair of conservative (for Stanford) students were trying to delicately argue that one could conceivably disagree that the president was the root of all evil even without being wholly and unreachably evil oneself. This can be tricky to do. Anyway, at one point I was telling one of them, Malcolm, how I thought the Bush administration handled international affairs with a lack of tact and nuance that bordered on recklessness. Another student brought up the Kyoto Protocol, and Malcolm objected that the agreement was never going to be ratified in the Senate, which was true. Are we supposed to simply pretend that we’re okay with it, he asked, to act like we’re just dragging our feet or haggling over details when in fact there’s no way we’re ever going to ratify? Isn’t it better to just say up front what we think? I had an epiphany. No, no it wasn’t better. I want a president who will lie to foreigners, who has the patience and the presence of mind to play the little games of diplomacy, so that when the rubber hits the track and we need to get things done, we’re more likely to get our way.
Bill Clinton was the guest on the last episode of the Daily Show’s international edition (which we only just discovered). I was listening to him talk about his terms in office and the war in Iraq and the upcoming election, and I was nodding along – everything he said was just so right! I caught myself; Slick Willie was just working his usual charismagic, and I had been completely caught up in it. Then I smiled fondly. That’s the kind of man I want to send to deal with France.
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