Gen. David Petraeus’ Senate testimony on the war in Iraq was less political theater and more kabuki theater, an elaborate production in which everyone already knows the outcome.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., aware that many Democrats in the upcoming states on the primary calendar happen to take a rather high view of the military, was working hard to avoid another blunder like the one last year when she told Patraeus that reading his report required the suspension of disbelief.
Her reticence resulted in the suspension of support from many of her husband’s retainers and continuing disbelief from the anti-war enthusiasts who have detested Clinton since she accidentally voted for the Iraq war in the first place.
Despite needing a big boost for her faltering presidential campaign, Clinton seemed so gripped by caution she ironed out any tone or vitality from her questioning. When Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., looks like the lively one on your committee, you’ve probably taken the idea of restraint too far.
Meanwhile, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had no reason to change the script of the show. Petraeus is the embodiment of the GOPer’s campaign pitch on Iraq, which amounts to an argument that Donald Rumsfeld was the problem, not the military.
McCain’s most dramatic moment came when he was heckled by the Strawberry Shortcake Squad or Code Pink or some such group that happily volunteered to be dragged out of the hearing room.
But even that has become more ritual than radical. The protesters scream for peace or whipped topping or something, McCain glowers, and Katie Couric gets the opening shot for her evening newscast. More kabuki.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., despite his argument that his college trip to Pakistan and multicultural background make him a better bet for foreign policy than Clinton or McCain, was happy to keep things pretty light, if a little indifferent, with Petraeus.
Since Obama’s Iraq policy amounts to reminding us that he would have voted against the war in the first place, he’s free to remain as bubbly as Bing Crosby vamping on “Bing With a Beat.”
And as long as the Obamanauts believe that electing their candidate will transport us back to 2003, he can keep crooning the same tune. Who knew that acting offended by the process could amount to a political position?
The reason Tuesday’s show was of so little relative importance was because things have improved in Iraq. The whole animating spirit of the Democratic Party for the past three years – opposition to the war in Iraq – is losing its luster as some approximation of order is established there.
Things fell totally apart in Iraq too late for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to win the White House in 2004 and now they may be put back together too soon to do the job for Obama – presuming he can finally finish off Clinton’s floundering effort.
What, then, on the foreign policy front will drive the undecided voters of places such as Florida and Ohio to make their decisions?
Our best hint comes from the havoc in the streets of San Francisco as the Chinese government continues its drive to the east, formerly known as the Olympic torch run.
While the schizophrenic Chinese government may succeed in turning the Olympic Village into a Disneyland version of their country, my money says that all the other television outlets are going to be so eager for NBC to get burned on its billion-dollar Beijing bet that they will discover a new appreciation for Tibetan independence and the religious freedom of the Falun Gong.
As reporters get nosy, the Chinese leadership will discover its inner Maoist and start treating the press corps like Hillary Clinton wishes she could. When the Chinese get a load of Keith Olbermann off his leash, they’ll try to re-educate him for sure.
Even if late August and September aren’t dominated by actual crackdowns and immolated monks, Americans probably won’t like much of what they see in the country auditioning to be the world’s next superpower.
Americans of all stripes will get uneasy, whether they’re for Tibet, against global warming or worried about outsourcing. This could end up as a replay of Berlin 1936.
And if the awareness of the rise of an unfriendly giant on the world stage doesn’t help McCain, then Ike didn’t command Overlord.
