So, John McCain says that, if elected president, he will improve the image of America abroad — in Europe, particularly. (The relevant news story is here.) The ugly American will be no more, or at least will fade. I can’t help thinking this is a little bit fanciful, and a little bit arrogant.

Europeans have long held a negative view of America, and, chances are, they always will. You may want to look at the excellent volume on anti-Americanism edited by Paul Hollander. (An Amazon link is here.) What they’re saying about George W. Bush, they were certainly saying about Reagan. And European anti-Americanism goes back to before the Republic was formed.

I remember, some years ago, trying to tell Norman Podhoretz how bad anti-Americanism was when Reagan was president. He kind of scoffed at me: It was ever thus. In his book My Love Affair with America, he talks of his time as a student abroad, when he encountered Euros “horrified by the prospect of being drowned by Coca-Cola and poisoned by hamburgers.” Right — plus ça change . . . (For an essay I wrote on my own time as a student abroad — an essay in which I quote the Podhoretz book — go here.)

McCain says that, in his image-improvement project, he will close down the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and transfer them to Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas. Well, there’s a garden spot. Isn’t the Caribbean nicer? McCain also says that he will militate against global warming. Well, we could just adopt Kyoto and shut down the American economy — that would make Europe really, really happy!

You have to ask which the American president should be more worried about: correct policy or the approval of Le Monde. They don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

Beyond which, when we say “Europe,” what do we mean? There is more to that continent than Frenchmen, Belgians, and David Cameron. When Eastern European leaders spoke out in favor of the U.S., Jacques Chirac said they were not “bien élevés” — that they were not well brought up — and that they “missed a great opportunity to shut up.” He further called them “infantile.” Frankly, I would rather appeal to a Czech or two than to Jacques Chirac. (You should hear Vaclav Havel on America.)

Look: Trying to get Europeans to like you is a) a fool’s errand and b) not a fit concern for a U.S. president, particularly in war. Stick to principle, succeed in your work, and enough will come, surely.

‐In other news, McCain said, “I would like to see this campaign conducted on past record and ambition for the future. I would hope that gossip — or, quote, ‘family issues’ — would not enter into this campaign.” (The article is here.)

Uh-huh. It seems that McCain is constantly trying to control how we spend our political dollars, what we may talk about, when we may talk about it. If he could go after thought . . .!

Let me be blunt (especially since McCain fans are supposed to prize bluntness): We are fortunate enough to live in a democracy, in which you can call a man an adulterous skunk, if that’s what you think. You will not be bundled off to jail. And you may vote on any criteria — “professional” or “personal” — you like.

Moreover, you may think that, if a man can’t keep his marriage vows, he’s not likely to be much good in any other department either. You are still allowed to say that, I believe, although perhaps I should check with Justice Breyer (or the editor of the New York Times, or Oprah, or whoever the highest authority is).

McCain also said, “People’s family difficulties should be kept private as much as possible.”

Uh-huh. Have you noticed how, in the language of some, what people do to their families gets transformed into “family difficulties”? I hit my brother over the head with a hammer. Now we have a headache and family difficulties.

Yep, “we” sure do.

‐I will now quote the great Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware: “I think Gonzales has lost the confidence of the vast majority of the American people. I think he’s lost the confidence of the Congress.”

Do you ever wish that politicians would stop citing “the American people” or “the vast majority of the American people”? The vast majority of the American people — or certainly the majority — haven’t the faintest idea who Al Gonzales is. On Congress, Biden can speak with some authority, I grant. On “the American people,” no. At times like this, politicians should simply say what they think and leave others out of it.

In other words: If you think Al Gonzales should go, fine. But don’t pretend to be George Gallup.

‐Last January, in Davos, Iraqi vice president Adil Abd al-Mahdi said, “Some people say we are in a civil war. I don’t agree with that. I think that it is a war against civilization, a war that targets the whole society.”

A war against civilization. I thought of that phrase when reading this news story on Saturday:

Three suicide bombers driving trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine gas struck targets in heavily Sunni Anbar province including the office of a Sunni tribal leader opposed to al-Qaida. The attacks killed at least two people and sickened 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops, the U.S. military said Saturday.
There is a mounting power struggle between insurgents and the growing number of Sunnis who oppose them in Anbar, the center of the Sunni insurgency . . .

A war against civilization. A Sunni tribal leader opposed to al Qaeda.

These are critical questions to ponder.

‐In Amsterdam, they have unveiled a memorial to Theo van Gogh, as you can read in this article. What most struck me about the article, however, was the name of Amsterdam’s mayor: Job Cohen.

Holy mackerel! I had no idea. They’ve come a long way in Holland since the 1940s. (And if you ever feel like being sickened — if you’re in that special mood — just read about Holland in the war and Holocaust. Go ahead.)

‐Yesterday, I read a headline from the AP: “Israel Affirms Hard Line on Palestinians” (over this article). Ah, what hard line would that be? Well — the line that says Israel will not deal with parties refusing to recognize its right to exist, or seeking its destruction. Yes, that hard line.

And what might a soft line be? National suicide?

In a related story (go here), one country has announced that it is breaking sanctions on Hamas, and that country is Norway. Good ol’ Norway: Were they this good when Quisling was in charge? (No matter what, they’ll always have Grieg.) (They kept Grieg and sent us the Mondales.)

And in a third bit of Israel-related news, “Thousands of American and Israeli troops conducted an operation Sunday to test new ways of intercepting missiles able to carry nuclear, chemical and biological warheads . . .” (The article is here.) Hmm: anti-missile defenses in Israel. Those could come in handy.

‐We kid France a lot — excoriate them a lot — but they are remarkably mature on one issue, and far more mature than Americans: nuclear power. They are so far ahead of us, it’s almost pathetic. I was reminded of this when reading “Anti-Nuclear Rallies Fill French Cities”: “Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of five French cities Saturday to protest plans to build the next generation of nuclear reactors.” The reason there are anti-nuclear rallies is that France has facilities to rally against. Even French enviros tend to advocate nuclear power as an alternative to oil.

So, I say, Vive la France Nucléaire!

‐I will give you a link to a story about Liverpool: here. And the story is not about the Beatles, but about slavery, which was, for years, the main business of that city.

And I also wish to give you a memory — an NR cruise memory. We were on our British Isles cruise, in the summer of ’05 — what a wonderful cruise! — and we were crossing over by ferry from our ship to Liverpool. And surveying the urban expanse, David Pryce-Jones murmured, “The wealth of this city comes from slaving.” A chilling remark, lodged in my noggin (as you can tell).

‐Did you happen to see the story — here — about an independent press in China? There are peepings, just peepings. And I wish to remind you, if reminding you need or desire, of a story I wrote recently about the independent press in Cuba: You can find it here. In particular, it’s about a group called Jóvenes sin Censura, or Youth Without Censorship. The article is entitled “Youth with Unfathomable Courage.”

I’d also like you to know of this article by Val Prieto, on what life is like for an independent journalist in Cuba. A sample: “He will not retype the piece when he’s done with his morning edit. Paper is scarce. He’s got very little shoe polish left for the typewriter ribbon.”

‐Something a tad lighter — say, birth control for squirrels? A friend forwarded me this article from the L.A. Times:

Afraid that a population explosion among squirrels in a city park could pose a public health risk, Santa Monica officials are ready to try a proven method of dealing with the problem: birth control shots.
Plans call for squirrels in Palisades Park to be injected with an immuno-contraceptive vaccine to stunt sexual development. Breeding season runs from February to April, but the inoculations will take place this summer when the squirrels are most active outdoors and easier to trap.
Santa Monica would be only the second city in the state, besides Berkeley, to try the immunization program.
“It’s a cutting-edge approach,” said Joe McGrath, the city’s parks chief. “Pest control in general isn’t usually very exciting or even controversial. That hasn’t been the case with the squirrels.” . . .
Resident Mike Sheldon, who was jogging in Palisades Park recently, said he for one was not surprised by the city’s action.
“Only in a city like Santa Monica would you expect this kind of behavior,” Sheldon said. “Even our squirrels are living on the progressive edge.”

You could say, “Squirrel birth control is part of what’s so great about Santa Monica.” Or you could say, “Squirrel birth control is part of what’s so not-great about Santa Monica.” Whatever your view, the squirrel story confirms it.

‐Let’s end on some music. I have just read an obit of Ernst Haefliger, the classy Swiss tenor who died in his hometown of Davos. He was born in 1919 and had essentially stopped singing by the time I came along. But I did hear him in concert: He performed as the Speaker in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder one afternoon at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra was the Metropolitan Opera’s orchestra, conducted by James Levine. And among the singers was Ben Heppner, the Canadian heldentenor.

Heppner got up to perform a section — a fairly difficult one — and, when he resumed his seat, beside Haefliger, the older man gave him a discreet little pat on the back, one that said, “Well done, Ben, way to go.” Classy, yes.

And, by the way, Haefliger performed the part of Speaker damn well, too.