ClydeR
06-12-2015, 08:52 PM
The sequel to my unforgettable post on the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics (http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthread.php?54026) is this..
Every presidential candidate must perform certain compulsory exercises. One is that you must write a book. Another is that you must make a high-profile trip overseas, most likely to Europe or Israel. Candidates travel to foreign capitals so that they can look presidential. They wear their best suit, shake hands resolutely, and sit at long tables with good posture. We see the president shaking these hands and sitting at these tables a lot of the time, so if a candidate dresses up and plays president, we might think he’s fit for the job. These trips also allow the candidates to claim greater foreign policy wisdom.
More... (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/06/jeb_bush_s_trip_to_europe_the_republican_candidate _traveled_to_berlin_to.html)
They promote a Holiday Inn Express theory of presidential travel. Candidates take these trips, refer to them to give ballast to their foreign policy views, but then they don’t talk about what they actually learned that gave them the expertise that they hope we see in them. Candidates want us to believe that they learned something—otherwise, why bother going?—but don’t want to admit it because anything that seems too revelatory might be a fact you should already have known.
If there’s one thing that we’ve learned about presidential candidates who become presidents, it’s that their foreign policy promises are the ones that get most shredded by contact with reality. President Clinton shamed George H.W. Bush for being too soft on China and then worked to grant China most-favored-nation status. George W. Bush promised a humble foreign policy and then launched two wars and tried to transform parts of the Middle East into a democracy. Barack Obama promised to get the United States out of wars in the Middle East. This week he announced more troops are going to Iraq to help in the fight against ISIS.
You are now smarter than when you started reading this post.
Every presidential candidate must perform certain compulsory exercises. One is that you must write a book. Another is that you must make a high-profile trip overseas, most likely to Europe or Israel. Candidates travel to foreign capitals so that they can look presidential. They wear their best suit, shake hands resolutely, and sit at long tables with good posture. We see the president shaking these hands and sitting at these tables a lot of the time, so if a candidate dresses up and plays president, we might think he’s fit for the job. These trips also allow the candidates to claim greater foreign policy wisdom.
More... (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/06/jeb_bush_s_trip_to_europe_the_republican_candidate _traveled_to_berlin_to.html)
They promote a Holiday Inn Express theory of presidential travel. Candidates take these trips, refer to them to give ballast to their foreign policy views, but then they don’t talk about what they actually learned that gave them the expertise that they hope we see in them. Candidates want us to believe that they learned something—otherwise, why bother going?—but don’t want to admit it because anything that seems too revelatory might be a fact you should already have known.
If there’s one thing that we’ve learned about presidential candidates who become presidents, it’s that their foreign policy promises are the ones that get most shredded by contact with reality. President Clinton shamed George H.W. Bush for being too soft on China and then worked to grant China most-favored-nation status. George W. Bush promised a humble foreign policy and then launched two wars and tried to transform parts of the Middle East into a democracy. Barack Obama promised to get the United States out of wars in the Middle East. This week he announced more troops are going to Iraq to help in the fight against ISIS.
You are now smarter than when you started reading this post.