So the mullahs agree temporarily to Europe’s latest attempt to bribe them into abandoning their nuclear programs. The decision largely cuts the U.S. out of further meaningful pressure on Iran, unless the president wants to isolate the U.S. from Europe in the first weeks since his election. He surely won’t. (I wonder how extensively this was discussed with Tony Blair. The president seemed to endorse the European initiative last Friday.) Put that together with renewed European enthusiasm for movement on the post-Arafat Israel-Palestinian question, and you can see why I wondered before the election what difference a Bush victory would actually mean for the war on terror. Actually, the Washington Post does see an impact from Bush’s re-election:
European diplomats said Bush’s reelection helped the negotiations by limiting Iran’s options. Had Democrat John F. Kerry won, Iran might have tried to play for time or probe what policy shifts a new administration was considering, they said.
So Bush indirectly prompted the Iranians to ally themselves more thoroughly with the European powers. I doubt, with Iraq’s insurgency still raging, the president has much of a choice but to acquiesce for the time being.
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “It’s never easy to be a liberal in Alabama. The Democratic Party here is in tatters, and it’s certainly a tough adjustment from my previous life in San Francisco. And yet, the most difficult thing for me is having to listen to the endless procession of whiney, pouting urban liberals, who have filled the Internet this week with this idea that the South is filled with nothing but hillbilly, cousin-loving yahoos.
I can tell you one reason John Kerry lost the South. He and the Democrats have written it off the past two presidential elections. Al Gore would be President today if he had won his own damn state, and he could have done that if he had spent a bit more time talking to his constituents than sipping cappuccino with yet another group of Wisconsin voters.
Yes, Bush would have won Alabama no matter what the Kerry/Edwards camp did this year. But the Democrats entire national campaign in Alabama consisted of one four-hour trip from Edwards. He literally got stepped off a plane, had a quick dinner, grabbed $500,000 in checks and hit the road. Screw the Alabama Democratic Party and anyone else in the state.
Why would anyone in Alabama give a damn about the Democratic Party? Despite the fact that Kerry won 11 counties statewide, and despite the fact that the current Republican governor is a prime target to be beaten in 2006, Democrats just walked away from the state.
It took the conservatives 20 years to build a strong national base, and they did it one precinct at a time. From what I’ve seen this week, we liberals don’t have the stomach for it. When we hit a tough patch, we whine and walk away from the battle. I’m just disgusted by my fellow liberals.” More feedback on the Letters Page.
The Dish 