Kerry's Foreign Boosters

John Kerry is claiming to have support among a few foreign leaders, although he is avoiding any questions regarding his overseas admirers.

Now I can understand Germany and France deciding that they would prefer someone other than Bush in office, given the "old Europe" comments and the general disagreement about everything except the day of the week. But I found this quote from Kerry to be quite interesting:

"I'm talking about our allies, I'm talking about people who were our friends nine months ago," Kerry said while campaigning Sunday, adding he would not identify leaders he spoke with.

Kerry, who speaks French and some German, said they told him: "'You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy'."

I have a real problem with Kerry not seeing an issue with that statement. As President his job would be to formulate and direct US policy, regardless of the opinions of other nations. France, Germany or whoever made that statement certainly would like to see a new policy in Washington.

But just because they would like to see a new policy does not mean that we should grant that wish or even entertain it. US policy is designed to promote the interests of the US first, foremost, and only.

The President shouldn't give a rat's behind whether or not anyone else agrees or disagrees with our policy. He is beholden only to the American electorate, which make quotes like this pretty useless in the end:

A survey Monday of German voters published by Focus magazine found that 65 percent want Kerry compared to 11 percent for Bush, five percent for neither and 19 percent undecided.

The problem with this statement is that the opinion of the German electorate doesn't matter in the US general election. The quote tells us nothing of any value. It is almost as the media is so desperate to get rid of Bush that they will seize on any favorable bit of information that might help their cause.

But again we end up coming back around to the same basic fact. The President works for the American people and only for the American people. Given Kerry's pride in the endorsements of the foreign leaders and his acceptance of their desire for a new policy in Washington, I don't think that he quite understands who his employer would be.

And it is absolutely critical that you understand who your real employer is before taking on any new job.