Back in the days of Teddy Roosevelt, American toughness means speaking softly and carrying a big stick. In the Bush era, it means shouting your head off and carrying a nerf bat.
Now Vladimir Putin has given me occasion to say exactly this. As military analyst Martin Sieff writes for UPI:
Bush is now, more than ever, a lame duck who has just been humiliated by Putin and the Russian army in Georgia, and he is desperately hoping global oil prices will continue to drop. But Russia is the second-largest oil exporter in the world and the largest exporter of oil and gas combined. Russia is therefore in a far stronger position to hammer the United States with economic retaliation for U.S.-imposed economic sanctions than the other way around.
The great U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt recommended talking softly and carrying a big stick in the world of international relations. For seven and a half years, Bush has been talking loudly and carrying a stick whose military and economic clout has been shrinking by the year. Now he is paying the price.
Well said, Mr. Sieff. How can Republicans still think Bush is a tough guy when he A) bungled Iraq and is bungling Afghanistan, and now B) is getting peed on by Putin?
Wake up, Republicans. Toughness is about building up the power to back up your words. Something Clinton did, and Bush did not.
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