Two weeks from tomorrow, we’ll choose between Dubya and John
François. And then the lawyers and courts will take over to
tell us which really won. If we’re lucky, we’ll know by
inauguration day. It may be quite a while before we know who won,
but we can say — right now — who will be winners or losers as the
result of either candidate’s victory. I’ve spent many hours with
the Loose Canons crystal ball and my special global intelligence
consultant, the late Sidney Reilly. In our collective judgment,
these are the top losers in a Bush or Kerry win.
If Mr. Bush wins, the clearest and most immediate loser will be
the outrageously-biased mainstream media. CBS News and the New
York Times, to mention only two of the worst offenders, have
bent their picks trying to defeat Mr. Bush. Their prestige — or
what’s left of it — rides on his loss. If Mr. Bush wins, Gunga Dan
will retire this spring, Peter’s ratings will shrink and NBC’s new
anchor — Brian Williams — will soon wonder why the hell he’s
taken the job. No one outside Manhattan and the liberal salons of
Washington, Los Angeles, London, and Paris will have subscriptions
to the Times. Which is pretty much the case already.
(Think of all the liberals who will have nervous breakdowns if Bush
wins. Then buy stock in Roche Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline,
manufacturers of Valium and Wellbutrin, while the market is
down.)
In a tie for second place losers will be Iran and Syria. There
will be action taken against other sponsors of terror, but Iran is
the epicenter of global terrorism and thus earns a special place at
the top of our list of problems. Syria, which like Iran is actively
supporting the insurgents in Iraq, joins the top of the list of
problems that have to be solved urgently by diplomatic means or
otherwise. Iran’s hell-for-leather rush to obtain nuclear weapons
and the ability to produce them makes it the single greatest threat
to America today. The mullahs will not survive another Bush
presidential term. Neither will Bashar Assad.
Third place goes to the United Nations, which at this point
should be registered as another 527 group for Kerry. Like the
liberal press, the future power and prestige of the U.N. is riding
on Duyba’s defeat. Kofi Annan and Mohammed el-Baradei might
actually have to get real jobs. Annan is continuing to campaign
against Mr. Bush. First he said that the Iraq war was illegal. Then
he directly contradicted the president’s statements that the war
has made the world safer. And, just to make sure no one missed the
Kerry campaign ad, Annan said last weekend any military action
against Iran without U.N. permission would also be illegal. Funny
way to campaign for re-election as Secretary General when the U.S.
has a deciding vote. El-Baradei — the willfully blind head of the
International Atomic Energy Agency who is very comfortable with the
Iranian nuclear weapons program — is also campaigning for
reappointment while the Arab media expresses shock that he didn’t
win the Nobel Peace Prize. We mustn’t fret too long over their
future, because Annan will be given a college presidency (in
France, presumably) and el-Baradei has a promising career ahead of
him as a baseball ump. Mr. Bush will continue to play at diplomacy
at the U.N., but the important American diplomatic and military
actions will be independent of it.
Any list of losers in a Bush win has to include the EUnuchs. The
EU is still tottering along nicely, but those who have built their
careers on anti-Americanism such as Jacques Chirac, Gerhard
Schroeder, and the rest will lose power and influence quickly in a
second Bush term. Bashing America is the favorite European sport,
but when an American president bites back — and the people back
his play with actions such as the informal boycott of French goods
— paybacks hurt. Chirac is maneuvering to make Dominique de
Villepin his successor. De Villepin former foreign minister and
U.N. delegate — best remembered for refusing to answer a
reporter’s question about who he wanted to win the Iraq war —
isn’t a very good choice if Dubya is still in the saddle. The EU is
an economic suicide pact. That will become painfully clear in a
second Bush term.
Another set of losers — the OPEC nations — are waging a quiet
economic war against us right now. Which should be a surprise to
absolutely no one given that many of the OPEC nations — Algeria,
Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela — are the principal
supporters of terrorism. (Kuwait is a notable exception. We need to
remember that though Indonesia is not a supporter of terrorism, its
former president Megawati Sukarnoputri was probably among the
bribed by Saddam in the Oil for Food scam.) The price of oil, in
the $50 per barrel range, is already slowing our economy. After the
election, these nations, will either reduce the price of oil or
begin to feel more pressure from us than they ever have before.
Unless Mr. Kerry wins.
IF MR. KERRY WINS, THE biggest loser will be the American soldier.
They who go in harm’s way are all volunteers. They are willing to
brave danger because — in large part — they trust their president
to only spend their lives when necessary in the cause of American
freedom and security. During the Clinton years, the White House
broke that bond. Mr. Bush has restored it, but the troops know
Kerry won’t maintain it. The troops will rightly fear a return of
the Clinton era, spending lives in places such as Somalia where
nothing can be accomplished. (Darfur province in Sudan, where
genocide continues while the U.N. stands idly by, beckons to
Kerry.) Re-enlistments will decline and resignations will rise.
Kerry — not Bush — will reinstitute the draft to try to keep the
force from becoming what it was in the Clinton era: hollow.
The next biggest loser in a Kerry win is Israel. Kerry’s
allegiance to the U.N. and France can have only one effect. It
means a concomitant reduction in American support for Israel, in
the diplomatic arena and possibly in the economic arena as well.
Israel is always under siege, but without a strong American hand
vetoing U.N. nonsense, and without a non-nuanced pro-Israeli voice
from the White House to Europe, the EU may even put Israel on a
list of sanctioned nations, precluded from some or all trade. The
EUnuchs would cozy Kerry into talking again with Arafat, reviving
Arafat’s moribund role as the Palestinian’s “representative” in
some new peace process. No wonder a recent poll by the Canadian
La Presse newspaper showed Israelis overwhelmingly for
Bush.
Israel won’t be the only loser internationally. If Kerry were to
do what he’s promised and undertake unilateral talks with North
Korea, that will sour our relations with China, endanger India,
Japan and South Korea. If he implements his version of Carterism
and bases international relations on human rights, Turkey and
Pakistan — both key allies in the war against terrorists — will
be distanced from us. Our connection to them will hang by a thread,
and both we and they will lose.
If Kerry wins, every American doctor will lose. So many
physicians — especially those in practices prone to lawsuits such
as ob-gyn’s, surgeons and anesthetists — are finding that they
can’t afford insurance. Without it, they can’t practice. With a
charter member of the bottom-feeding trial lawyers guild on the
ticket, there is zero chance for medical malpractice reform under
Kerry. Everyone who is anxious to see their family doc go out of
business should vote for John François.
Last, and least, lest we forget, the junior senator from New
York will be a big loser. Miz Hilly’s road to the White House run
into an impassable eight-year roadblock. Kerry wouldn’t fail to run
in ‘08, and would certainly lose. That leaves Hillary to 2012, by
which time she’d actually have a record to run on. Yes, it’s years
away, but be patient. Miz Hilly’s run for the White House is going
to be the most fun we’ve had since Lil’ Billy was impeached.
TAS Contributing Editor Jed Babbin is the author
of, Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe Are Worse
Than You Think (Regnery Publishing).
