“back to an era of blustering and blundering”

Does sort sum up the Bush foreign policy doesn’t it?

Anyone who wanted a new programmatic statement is going hungry. This is an acceptance speech, not a State of the Union. The theme is contrast, not policy wonkery.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

5 thoughts on ““back to an era of blustering and blundering””

  1. Masterfully. Also well describes Mitt’s recent foreign travels and foreign policy statements.

  3. After watching Clinton’s speech the other night, it occurred to me that the R’s didn’t invite any of their former Presidents to speak at their convention. That’s got to be pretty rare, as far as conventions go, but who are they gonna call? After all the “are you better off now” talk, the last thing they needed was a Bush to remind everyone of how things really were after their last turn at the wheel, and they knew it.

  4. Since I was one of the few calling for a policy agenda beyond protecting the progressive legacy, count me slightly disappointed. Obama will (probably) be reelected as a Sphinx: nobody will know what his real priorities are. The same was true for the first term – there was little reason from the primary and final campaigns to think he would bet the farm on health care.

Comments are closed.