As soon as Kerry used the phrase "Global test" I cringed. I saw it coming. That these two words would be taken out of context and turned into a club to beat his multilateralism into a wimpy, almost treasonous lack of conviction.
We've all seen it happen.
We need to take this exchange apart. We need to parse what was said, what it was transformed into, and come up with a way to convey to the media their responsibility to prevent outright, craven, juvenile misrepresentation of words that are on the record.
Here is is what Kerry said:
The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things we argued about with respect to arms control.
No president, though all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.
But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.
- The first point to make, it seems to me is to emphasize the first sentence of this response.
"The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike..."
And then the personal embellishment:
"No president, though all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America."
- What precisely is meant by "test?" Who is taking the test? Who is answering the test?
The Bush spin on this phrase is that Kerry is asking the global community for a response. That the U.N. or France is being asked to sign off on something, that they are giving the "test answers." That the Global Test is whether or not the global community says yes or no to the necessity of a preemptive strike.
This is the opposite of what Kerry said. It is the President of who is taking the test, it is the President who must answer the question.
What is the test: that the President can answer yes to the following two parts:
- "Your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing..." "
- "...and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."
- That Bush's response is literally true:
Let me -- I'm not exactly sure what you mean, "passes the global test"...
He did not understand Kerry's statement.
We must find a way to get into the public discourse that Kerry's statement was a description of the President's responsibility to the people of the U.S. and to the global community, NOT a ceding of authority.
UPDATE: Well, the misrepresentation isn't going away. Ignoring it has not worked. During the VP Debate Edwards did not argue forcefully enough, the moderator perpetrated it further by simply requoting the last sentence (out of context).
Shouldn't we revive this and other Global Meme diaries and start talking again?