The Court of World Opinion

I know this is kind of pointless, but I am going to point it out again. Mona Charen's latest article takes the old canard that Democrats want to be hippy dippy buddies with all the terrorists of the world, while Republicans are hard headed realists.

Well, everyone likes to be loved, but Democrats seem more than a little obsessed with America's international reputation. Recall that in 2004, John Kerry described the matter as "primary" to the presidential race. "Foreign leaders" were apparently tapping Kerry on the shoulder at restaurants to express their dim view of his country.

Why is it so important to win an international popularity contest? If America is not popular in the world, what are the other nations going to do to us? Stop buying our products? Kick us out of the U.N.? Vote us off the island?

Actually, some of those consequences, particularly the U.N. bit, don't sound so awful.

OK, once again, it's not about being liked. It's about having allies when we need them. We are the biggest baddest nation on the planet, but we are not all powerful. Hell our military adventures in just Afghanistan and Iraq have strapped our resources, both military and economic. We need allies, nations who share our goals and who want what we want internationally. And we aren't going to get that by insulting and belittling them. We aren't going to get it by adopting a "go-it-alone" attitude.

The truth is, it's the Republican's go it alone attitude, their childish machismo that is pathetic, not the Democrats willingness to work with other nations.