Andrew Sullivan had this to
Andrew Sullivan had this to say about Colin Powell's appearance on MTV:
Contrast Bill Clinton's excruciating dialogue with MTV viewers not so long ago with Colin Powell's masterful, engaged colloquy. No boxers or briefs questions. No attempt to pander shamelessly for votes. Just a principled and effective defense of America's role in the world to a global generation that desperately needs to hear it.
I'm a big fan of Andrew Sullivan's writing, but I've got to agree with
Ted Barlow here, when he says "Sullivan should retire the word 'Clinton' from his vocabulary, because it does funny things to his head." It's pretty easy to avoid "pandering for votes" when you're not actually running for anything. (Though he may be an unofficial candidate for Chris Patten's job-- I'd say he's done a fair bit of pandering to that constituency.) And much as I'd love to give Powell an award for managing to avoid having an embarrassing question asked of him about his underwear, this also required very little in the way of "masterful engagement." The question was not asked. A rock could have handled this situation just as well as the Secretary of State. As far as I know, even Sullivan's arch-nemesis Paul Krugman, say what you will about his other failings, has deftly managed to avoid having this question asked of him on MTV, as have Saddam Hussein, Noam Chomsky, Gary Condit, Yasser Arafat, Regius Phillbin, Jean-Claude van Damme, ... the list goes on and on. It's a pretty low standard.
Joking aside, Powell's MTV appearance was indeed impressive, and I agree that his answer to the question about the US being the Great Satan is exactly what such an audience needs to hear:
"I would say we are the great protector." He said the United States had rebuilt Europe and Japan after World War II, defeated Communism and fascism and that "the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead."
(According to the NY Times, he told the audience "don't even think about it" in reference to the obvious boxers/briefs question that was clearly hovering in the air. Forewarned is forearmed. There are a lot serious things that Clinton has to answer for, but the MTV appearance is about as silly as they come. In fact, harping on it dilutes the effectiveness of the serious arguments.)
Posted by Dr. Frank at February 15, 2002 06:15 PM
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