01 Dec John Bolton for President (No Joke!)
From an interview with Jennifer Rubin, a new conservative blogger on the WaPo:
Bolton has begun to talk openly to conservative gatherings and media about his interest in a 2012 presidential run. “I’m seriously considering it,” he told me in an interview, in large part because of the “lack of foreign policy debate.” Having gotten past the idle chatter stage, he says he’s going to make the decision “in a very deliberate way” and suggests that making up his mind by mid-2011 is “not unreasonable.” He contends that he stands as good a chance as anyone. “The race is wide open,” he says.
Is it really that wide open? I don’t see Bolton as someone who would take very well to retail politics, a Pat Buchanan without the charm. But his candidacy would supply a gauge of anti-internationalist sentiment among Republican voters (for what it’s worth, I think it’s waning).
These are my favorite Bolton quotes:
“It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so because, over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States.”, John Bolton
“There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally be led by the only real power left in the world, and that is the United States, when it suits our interest, and when we can get others to go along…The success of the United Nations during the Gulf War was not because the United Nations had suddenly become successful. It was because the United States, through President Bush, demonstrated what international leadership, international coalition building, international diplomacy is really all about… When the United States leads, the United Nations will follow. When it suits our interest to do so, we will do so. When it does not suit our interests we will not.”, John Bolton
Considering the Republican candidate slate is about as destitute as could be imagined (We’re looking at you, Sarah Palin) I think he might as well throw his hat in the ring.