National Democrats are sticking their toes into the roiling waters of the Middle East crisis by blaming President Bush. Using this situation for domestic political fodder is extremely dangerous, but not unprecedented.
Clinton Democrats have always seen the world as a zero sum game.
A zero sum game is: "A situation in which one participant's gains result only from another's equivalent losses. The net change is always zero."
The U.S. Senate, with 100 Members, is a perfect example of a zero sum game. If the members are evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats then each has 50. If Senator Jeffords changes sides then the division become 51-49. Democrats are plus one. Republicans are minus one. The net change is, as the rules say, zero.
In the world of Bill Clinton's supporters, it was never enough for him to have done well; his opponents had to have done badly. It was not enough to get a piece of legislation through the process; a heavy political price had to be paid by the other guys. It is not enough for Bill Clinton to be remembered fondly; his successor has to be thought of badly.
For the Clintonistas, life is a zero sum game.
On CNN Monday, the subject was the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. I said that this situation has existed since 1948; that since that time 10 Presidents had tried to solve it prior to George W. Bush. I gave special credit to Bill Clinton for having worked very hard to find a solution in the waning days of his Presidency.
Ten Presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. If just ONE of them had been successful - then we would not be where we are today.
None were, so we are.
Paul Begala, was also on the show. He is on the "Bush-Isn't-Doing-Enough" bandwagon and couldn't let that go. He suggested that the situation was collapsing while "Bush was in Texas chopping wood."
Sidebar.
Here's what happens when you are on television and someone says something like that. Your first instinct is to say, "Paul? Are you certain that you want this discussion to turn into a comparison of what George W. Bush does in his spare time, and what your former boss did in HIS spare time?"
But then, in that split second between the moment you finish inhaling and your vocal chords engage, a vision of the Mullings Director of Standards and Practices flashes into your mind and you say, instead, "Paul, that's just silly."
End Sidebar.
See how this works? The value of Bill Clinton's effort is enhanced by the amount of times you say George W. Bush is not doing enough. A zero sum game.
However, read what President Clinton himself says about the Middle East in Jonathan Alter's current Newsweek interview:
Alter: President Bush is talking about using the "George Mitchell plan" as the basis for peace in the Mideast. That's basically the Clinton plan, isn't it?
Clinton: In fairness, there aren't that many options. I think if there's a final settlement it will look pretty much like where we were at Taba [Egypt, in December 2000].
There's a lot of good things going on underneath the radar screen. I still think there's a chance they can get a pretty good interim agreement that will buy us a couple of years of peace. I really believe that.
Ronald Reagan's reminder that there is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit, is the antithesis of seeing life as a zero sum game.
This would be a good time for American politicians and pundits to adopt that principle and keep the Middle East separate from - if not ahead of - domestic politics.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today, a short history of the establishment of Israel, a link to the Newsweek article, and the usual stuff.
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