It Isn't A Presidential Snub By Kerry That Worries Blair

[KittyWampus]

It isn't a presidential snub by Kerry that worries Blair
By Matthew d'Ancona

Long before John Kerry's success in the US presidential debates, Tony Blair was musing over what the defeat of George W Bush might mean for his own position. "You know," he told colleagues, "I don't think Kerry's attitude to the war on terror would be so very different to Bush's." That is not what Kerry says, of course. Last month, the Democrat nominee told the National Guard Association that he would have done "almost everything differently" to Bush in the global conflict. But the Prime Minister and his aides claim that there would be more continuity than is generally assumed if the Democrat nominee prevails on November 2.



It is certainly true that President-elect Kerry would not tear up the mythic charter of the "special relationship" simply to punish Mr Blair for his close friendship with Mr Bush. The protocol in such circumstances is rather more subtle. In his memoirs, Bill Clinton reveals what he really thought of the help John Major's government had given to George Bush Sr during the 1992 election campaign: "The British press fretted that the special relationship between our two countries had been damaged by this unusual British involvement in American politics. I was determined that there would be no damage, but I wanted the Tories to worry about it for a while."

Newly elected as the 44th president, Mr Kerry would be sorely tempted to make Mr Blair "worry about it for a while", too, not least because of the pointed fashion in which the Prime Minister instructed his party to send only a minimal delegation to the Democrat convention in July. There will also be those around Mr Kerry who agree with the Tories that Mr Blair's plan to send British troops to the US-controlled area around Baghdad is simply a political gesture to help Mr Bush's election campaign. If the Democrat wins, the Prime Minister will certainly need that "reverse gear" he claims not to have. Doubtless there are already teams of MI6 officers trying to find out what Mr Kerry's favourite brand of toothpaste is (a personal detail which proved oh-so-important on Mr Blair's first date with President Bush at Camp David). It will also alarm the Prime Minister's advisers to discover that the Democrat candidate's favourite baseball team - the Boston Red Sox - is also Michael Howard's.

Even so, I doubt that Mr Kerry would make Mr Blair "worry about it" for very long, if at all. With rare exceptions - Nixon and Heath being the most obvious - presidents and prime ministers end up getting along: sometimes because they find they have much in common ideologically, as did Thatcher and Reagan; sometimes because they just happen to like one another, as did Callaghan and Ford; but most often because economic, diplomatic and military necessity leaves them with little option to do otherwise. After making Major suffer a little for his partisan blunder, Clinton found that the two of them worked together perfectly well, and quickly concluded that the Tory prime minister was "serious, intelligent and . . . a better leader than his press coverage often suggested." Well, nobody's political antennae are infallible.

snip

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/10/17/do1703.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/10/17/ixportal.html

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. well?

[Gyre]

2. Well, if that little bitch

isn't scared he's stupid. We know he isn't stupid, so assume he's scared. He's part of the problem and Blair isn't likely to get much cover from Kerry based on his record. Gonna be harder for him to "bait and switch" his electorate due to a lack of US catastrophic behavior to divert attention.

Gyre

[DuaneBidoux]

3. Kerry doesn't snub.

He will approach the world, humble and with dignity, regardless of their stand. He will unite. He will not divide, and that is why he would approach Blair and humbly and respectfully say, "How can we all work together to get this mess behind us?"

[Demeter]

4. When Brits Throw Blair Out on His Ear

the whole question becomes moot. Don't even waste a minute on it.

[DaveSZ]

5. Keep in mind

This is a very right wing newspaper.