Imagine you are on your third date with someone. After the waiter picks up the check, there is an awkward silence. You get the sense they probably like you more than you like them, and you don’t see much future. Can you just blurt out: “Do you see us going anywhere, I don’t.”??? No, of course not. It might evoke an emotional, irrational reaction in the other person, or it could force both of you into committals that you don’t want to make on the spot without reflection.
At the dinner table you must be careful since people are involved, just two people. In the international arena, lots of people are involved. Thus words matter.
When a serious candidate for vice president speaks in a cavalier tone about war with Russia, still equates the invasion of Iraq with the forces of 9/11, and lacks understanding of how the Bush Administration has perverted the art of statecraft, there is cause for concern.
Note that Obama and Biden may agree with her on some issues, but they would not handle a sensitive hypothetical in a campaign. It’s one thing to study briefing books. It’s another thing to be educated and traveled. But you’re not ready to be a world leader until you possess a certain maturity. What John Kerry called a “global test”.
Think Miss Manners or Emily Post for Diplomats. Sarah Palin doesn’t have that savior fair. Even John McCain is questionable. Remember “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” sung to the melody of the Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann?
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