August 23, 2007

EDWARDS: 5K Words Later, And We Still Don't Know Where He Stands

John Edwards 9/07 Foreign Affairs article "Reengaging With the World" drew mixed netroots reviews. The Nation's Ari Melber liked the call for "moral leadership" and a new Marshall Plan for the developing world, but: "The most significant shortcoming in Edwards' article is that he does not say precisely when he would use force as president. The emphasis on "smart power" is a welcome acknowledgment that the administration's crabbed vision of American power has made our country less safe ... But Edwards does not provide a metric, let alone a doctrine, for when to use military force."

Matthew Yglesias had a similar problem but with a different passage. From Edwards: "We must retain the capacity to swiftly defeat any conventional threat to our country and our vital interests." Yglesias responds: "Without answering it, these formulae take on a pretty tautological quality. The question isn't would you use force when you thought it was vital to do so, the question is when is it vital to use force?"

Posted by Conn Carroll at August 23, 2007 12:58 PM