Posted on 12/28/2003 9:48:01 AM PST by nwrep
Some of Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean's worst campaign gaffes have followed briefings by former Clinton administration officials who were sought out by the Vermont Democrat to tutor him on foreign policy.
In August, Dean's campaign staff turned to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who conducted a six-hour "private class" for the Vermont Democrat on Middle East issues, reported the Boston Globe in Sunday editions.
A few weeks later, Dean caused an uproar by suggesting Israel and the Palestinians should be treated in an "evenhanded" way, the paper noted.
After that blunder, President Clinton began personally advising the Vermont Democrat, ostensibly in a bid to head off any further poltically damaging gaffes. But the results have been anything but stellar for the presidential front-runner.
Shortly after his talks with the ex-president, Dean began touting Clinton as a special Middle East envoy, saying that President Bush should tap Clinton for the job now, and that he would do so if elected. In the weeks that followed Dean loaded up his campaign staff with ex-Clinton officials like Anthony Lake and Susan Rice.
Lake was regarded by critics as a security risk when he was nominated by Clinton to be National Security Advisor in 1993.
Rice has been accused of spurning efforts by Sudan in the late 1990s to improve relations with the Clinton adminisration, which included an offer to arrest 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and turn him over to the U.S.
Coincidentally or not, since he's been under the tutelage of Clinton, Albright, Lake and Rice, the Democratic front-runner has careened from one rhetorical blunder on foreign policy after another.
In the last four weeks alone, Dean has accused the White House of being complicit in the 9/11 attacks, citing suspicions that President Bush received advanced warning from the Saudis but decided not to act on the tip.
Under sharp questioning by Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace a few days later, Dean declined to back away from the conspiracy theory or apologize, saying of the bizarre allegation: "We don't know [if it's true] and it would be a nice thing to know."
Two weeks ago, Dean insisted that the U.S. was "no safer" after the capture of Saddam Hussein, and that security measures undertaken by the Bush administration had left the country no less vulnerable to terrorist attack than it had been before 9/11.
And in what promises to be the most damaging gaffe of all, Dean told a New Hampshire newspaper on Friday that it was wrong to prejudge bin Laden's guilt, even though the 9/11 mastermind had bragged of plotting the attacks in a videotape released by al Qaeda two years ago.
In what may be a window into the kind of bizarre advice Dean has been getting, Albright herself was caught ten days ago indulging in some wild-eyed conspiracy mongering, when she told Fox News commentator Morton Kondracke that she wondered if the Bush administration had already captured bin Laden, but was keeping the news on ice until just before the 2004 election.
Albright later said she had been joking.
I was astounded that the media treated his 'that depends on what the meaning of is, is' tactic as some sort of genius. I, and millions of other kids perfected that at around the age of 8. I'll say it again; he ain't as smart as the chatterin' classes say he is, and he and his wife are as beatable as the red-headed stepchild so similarly disposed.
Could be. But Howie hired these people. On that basis alone, Dean is just too STUPID to be president....
THE REAL DEAL: Unlike the weasels, democrats, and terrorist appeasers,
Woulda done better having Maddy teach him to make beds and dust furniture.
Please in future avoid references to the Impeached One's bent member. Thank you.
It's revolting at a moral level. It's revolting at an intellectual level. It's revolting to even picture these lilly white asses claiming to be pro-Black, among other such rubbish.
None of these clowns know word one about real foreign affairs. They all think that foreign affairs are when you sleep with a married French woman.
It's pathetic. More specifically, THEY are pathetic.
In fact, the only reason that they have avoided political disaster for this long is because Ross Perot drew enough votes to give two elections to Clinton, who never once won a majority of the popular vote (a plurality, yes, but not a majority).
And the only reason that Clinton could eek out more votes than Bush and Dole (with Perot in both races) was because he had the unique charm to be able to unite all politically correct drones throughout our nation, including our news media.
No one speaks of "Clinton's policy" on *anything* today.
He did nothing. He has utterly no Presidential legacy. His tax increases have already been rolled back by Bush, as has his veto of the Partial Birth Abortion ban.
There is no Clinton Doctrine. There is no Clinton Treaty.
8 years in power and all that he managed to do was enlighten the American public as to why they should elect Republicans to clear out fellow Democrats like himself.
Yet the Democrats are still run by his ilk.
God only knows that loyal Democrats such as former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, Senator Zell Miller, former California Governor Jerry Brown, and even players like Andrew Cuomo in NY are all screaming at their fellow Democrats to kick out all of these Clintonian amateurs...but nooooooo...they all keep thinking that if they just "blame Bush" for enough things, and if they just scream loud enough, that somehow the American public will rush back into their idea-less Party in droves.
Ain't gonna happen.
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