WHO LOVES JOHN BOLTON?….Steve Clemons is asking around:
I am presently at a foreign policy conference called the CSIS Think Tank Summit organized by Simon Serfaty and Robin Niblett at the Wye Conference Center on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with a broad array of intellectuals who think about Transatlantic issues, the National Defense University, NATO, and national security strategy. I am here with people from AEI, the Monterey Institute, Harvard’s Kennedy School, CSIS, the Washington Institute on Middle East Policy, NATO, SWP in Germany, IISS, RAND Corporation, the German Marshall Fund, the Hoover Institution, and more.
The spectrum of perspective here is very wide — but I have not found a single defender of John Bolton. . .not one. And I have tried. One of those who might have defended his appointment did not show to the conference. No one here supports Boltonism at the U.N. — and many of these folks are wrapped fairly tightly into the inner circle of neo-conservatives [who] thought that his appointment was a good move for the Bush administration.
Not one?
Is Bolton destined to be a “Paid Shouter on Fox News” after all? By the way, does anyone have confidence that John Bolton is the best person to represent the United States abroad at a time that clearly requires deft diplomacy in Asia? Shouting can only get you so far, after all. Over to you, Chuck Hagel.
