Americanablog

Four years ago, you would have thought the only school Al Gore managed to graduate from was the Hulk Hogan Center for Public Policy. His "rousing" stump speeches, complete with a top-of-the-lung growl that sounded like a melding of Harvey Fierstein and Louis Armstrong, centered on a willingness to "fight". He vowed to fight for the elderly, providing them with prescription drug coverage. He vowed to fight for the children by decreasing class sizes in public schools. I think he may even have sworn to fight on behalf of the goiter afflicted by raising iodine content in table salt.

Now, it appears it's Kerry's turn to "fight". This time, it's for steel jobs. But, who will he fight against? And what, exactly, does he mean by "fighting"? After all, if he means sticking it to nations who engage in steel dumping, it's going to make it tough to be more "respectful of the world" when Japan, Russia, Ukraine, China, the UK, and EU have all engaged in it, to one degree or another.

My best guess is that Kerry plans to reach out to France in an attempt to soothe relations with other EU member states, and use that influence to put pressure on all the other nations of the world who use the US as a scrap heap. One problem with that is that none of the other nations of the world care much for France, either. The other problem is that France has stated its intention of being a counterbalance to US power and influence in the world -- essentially saying, "If the US is fer' it, we're agin' it."

Does anyone really expect that to change one iota if Kerry were to win the White House?