Dean's World
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.:: Dean's World: Dean On Foreign Policy ::.

December 15, 2003

Dean On Foreign Policy

"The Soviet Union is supplying much of the equipment that Iran, I believe, most likely is using to set itself along the path of developing nuclear weapons. We need to use that leverage with the Soviet Union and it may require us to buying the equipment the Soviet Union was ultimately going to sell to Iran to prevent Iran from them developing nuclear weapons. That is also a country that must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons much the key to all this is foresight. Let’s act now so we don’t have to have a confrontation which may result in force, which would be very disastrous in the case of North Korea and might be disastrous in the case of Iran."

--Governor Howard Dean, in an interview with Chris Matthews of Hardball.


Governor Dean went on to pledge that he would negotiate more favorable trade deals with the Emperor Ming of far Cathay. He also pledged to seek useful military alliances with Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the great Ataturk of Ottoman Turkey. The President's failure to do the same was still more proof, in Governor Dean's eyes, of the miserable failure that is the Bush administration.

His Majesty Stanisław Augustus of mighty Poland, a competing power in the latter region, was unavailable for comment at press time.

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Discuss This Article!

 

Dean and his chrono-machine will beat Bush! You just wait and see!

Posted by dowingba on December 15, 2003 at 1:18 AM


I'd like to send that transcript to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?

Posted by scott h. on December 15, 2003 at 2:33 AM


OK, didn't we stop calling it the "Soviet Union?" Isn't it supposed to be just, "Russia?" I know it's pedantic and symantic, but if one is running for president, and one is supposed to be a culturally diverse citizen, shouldn't they use proper language? Isn't that a surefire way to piss someone off and be called an "egocentric American?"

Correct me if I'm wrong--it has happened before.

Thanks,

Posted by Katherine on December 15, 2003 at 3:28 AM


I could never support a candidate who gives such half-hearted support to our valiant musketmen in Mesopotamia.

Posted by Paul Fallon on December 15, 2003 at 6:21 AM


But then I do agree with him that something must be done to correct the racial problems in Rhodesia and the Orange Free State

Posted by Paul Fallon on December 15, 2003 at 6:42 AM


The weaponry that's on the market is almost always described as "Soviet Era," right? An easy slip of the tongue. One time, after which you correct yourself. Katherine, you're right by any standard of common sense I've been in the same room with: the leader of the free world should remember what other *very large* countries are called, at a minimum.

Yrs., from Edo,

Posted by Sean Kinsell on December 15, 2003 at 6:51 AM


Let us pause a moment and thank the gods of the mechanistic age we live in whenin so many diverse peoples can communicate via "difference engine-enhanced telegraphy".

Posted by Skylar Coalfax on December 15, 2003 at 8:02 AM


Well, living here in the untamed snow-covered wilds not too many miles west of the mighty Mississippi River, I expect I'll be shaking my head over Howard Dean as I do trade today with a passing French fur trapper, or with a local band of the Oneota tribe.

Posted by Paul Burgess on December 15, 2003 at 8:40 AM


And yet, I have not heard about this slip of the tongue anywhere else. I do not watch Hardball. The host annoys me. I wonder if I would have heard of this if it had come from the mouth of George W. Bush or another Republican?

Posted by Adam the Cat Slayer on December 15, 2003 at 11:53 AM


My point, Adam! As I pointed out in an earlier thread, Gerald Ford was ridiculed back in 1976 when he insisted that Poland wasn't dominated by the Soviet Union.

I expect a presidential candidate to at least remember the names of the "top 5" countries. Come to think of it, didn't candidate Bush get a lot of flack for not remembering the name of the fellow in charge of Pakistan?

Posted by Casey Tompkins on December 15, 2003 at 1:55 PM


That reminds me of the funniest Saturday Night Live sketch of that year: when they parodied the debates and had Bush start rattling off the names of African countries and their prominent politicians. Hilarious.

Posted by Dean Esmay on December 15, 2003 at 2:14 PM


Then there was that one wherein Reagan was revealed to be a criminal mastermind who could speak 14 languages fluently and had to flog his staff to stay awake to keep up with his dastardly plans for world domination.

Heh.

Posted by Ara Rubyan on December 15, 2003 at 5:01 PM


Oh, I missed that one. I would have loved to see that one, Ara. :)

Posted by Katherine on December 15, 2003 at 7:50 PM


In fairness to Dean, it should be noted that his first reference to the "Soviet Union" was preceded by the word "former." Then again, I don't know how well it would have gone over if he had talked about Germany in the interview, and referred to it first as the "former Third Reich," only to refer to it later simply as "Nazi Germany" or to Chanceller Schröder as "der Führer."

Posted by Xrlq on December 15, 2003 at 11:02 PM


Hey, I'm just happy King Tony I Lion Heart is on our side.

Posted by David Melle on December 31, 2003 at 4:03 PM


 



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