About six months ago, I sat down with some like-minded folks and took stabs at what form of Sen. John Kerry’s disastrous “global test” would most likely come from the presidential nominees this time around.
As you’ll recall, during the 2004 presidential race Kerry proffered the following:
But if and when you [engage in preemptive war], Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.
As unthinkable as this mindset is to many, it also reflects a guiding philosophy of the Democratic Party’s core, and most if not all of its possible presidential aspirants. Therefore it was certain to rear its head again, if not verbatim. My guess, of course, was that it would emerge in the “global warming” context.
It is inarguable that Sen. Obama sipped deep and long from the “global test” cup with his claim that we can’t expect other countries to accept us setting our thermostats where we want and driving the sort of vehicles that we want, as I have previously suggested.
Although it received moderate attention, no one, as far as I caught, cited the resemblence to Kerry’s internationalist gaffe (the gaffe being to let the cat out of the bag). Kerry, of course, was favored by the press but hardly their darling.
It’s hard to imagine either Obama (or Sen. McCain) topping this entry. But let’s all keep our eyes peeled.