It sounded like a line out of a Barack Obama speech. Or a John Kerry speech, for that matter. John McCain’s recent address on international policy was all about us listening more to our allies. About being less unilateral in our global dealings. About not being the proverbial bull in the proverbial china shop. Just one problem. John McCain is far better at grasping diplomacy than doing diplomacy. Like the time he went off on Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister of Germany. And Joe Lieberman had to calm him down. You know Germany? One of those allies we need to listen to? (This guy Lieberman is like McCain’s back-up brain or something. Does he live on McCain’s shoulder? Is he like always there hovering. Crazy!) Listen, McCain has got the right idea. But so does Obama and Clinton. The question is who has the right temprement to pull it off. We’ve had enough of hot-headed, knee-jerk diplomacy. Next time, we need to get it right. After all, one day Joe Lieberman might not be there.
my apologies 
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I somehow forgot the McCain was in “The Matrix”. Wasn’t he Agent Smith?
I guess I just don’t see much difference between unilateral intervention and multi-lateral intervention. What I really have a problem with is intervention. Any intervention leads to more intervention. World War I was unjustified intervention. World War II was only justified intervention because of the unjustified intervention of World War I.
Diplomacy and free trade are far better means to deal with the rest of the world. Of course, neither Huey, Lewy or Dewy would dare suggest that the free markets might have more power to influence the world than Washington.
i’m sure the french love him:
MCCAIN: [The French] remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who’s still trying to dine out on her looks, but doesn’t have the face for it. The cynical role–the cynical role that France is playing proves that if — if you are not — you cannot be a great nation unless you have great purpose. And they’ve lost their purpose. And it’s very unfortunate, and perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt made a very serious mistake when they decided to give France a veto in the Security Council, following–when the United Nations was organized. [CBS, 2/16/03]
MCCAIN: They’ve made clear their intentions to use whatever means to block our military action in Iraq no matter what we do. So they have to be, I think, treated for what it is, a — an election ploy on the part of the German leader. And in the case of French, simply kind of classic French misbehavior. [CNN, 2/10/03]
MCCAIN: Look, I don’t mean to try to be snide, but the Lord said the poor will always be with us. The French will always be with us, too. [Hardball, 2/10/03]
“McCain has been equally vehement regarding the French: ‘The Lord said the poor will always be with us, and the French will be with us, too. This is part of a continuing French practice of throwing sand in the gears of the Atlantic alliance.’” [Arizona Republic, 2/19/03]