Gone this week is the hysterical tone of The Rebellion against The Elites of last week. Replacing that ‘Rebellion’ as the current rhetorical frame is the ‘Isolationism’ of Trump and Sanders, far right and hard left respectively,  as opponents of TPP an exemplar of ‘Free Trade’, ‘The Pivot to Asia’ and other bloated locutions, of the political hirelings of Global Capital. And ,of course, no pundit here at The Financial Times can resist a bit of political melodrama, which is provided by that all purpose villain Vladamir Putin. As a reason to maintain America’s ‘Internationalism’ in the face of Putin’s aggressions in Ukraine and now his Syrian intervention. The double standard that is exhibited by American apologists is always evident, except to those apologists whose myopia, or actual blindness to that truth is ever present, in any foreign policy discussion/debate.

All of this leading to conjecture about President Obama’s foreign policy ‘weakness’, ‘fecklessness’, which takes the onus off Mr. Luce, but puts this accusation into rhetorical play. One-upmanship is still being practiced, but not very adroitly by Mr. Luce. One might look at Obama’s first term as being advised and assisted by Samantha Power, Victoria Nuland and Mrs. Clinton, and in his second term by John Kerry, who has taken the dominant role as adviser, a decided realignment but not by much: The New Cold Warriors supplanted by an ersatz Dove?

American Writer

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c598ba32-d1a1-11e5-92a1-c5e23ef99c77.html#axzz40FLIZ3bz