Back in March, the Bush campaign was having a grand time with John Kerry’s assertion that multiple foreign leaders would prefer a Kerry administration to a Bush administration. Dick Cheney, for example, chided the candidate and suggested sinister behind-the-scenes deals.
“Senator Kerry said that he has met with foreign leaders, and I quote, ‘who can’t go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, ‘You’ve got to win this, you’ve got to beat this guy, we need a new policy,’ things like that.’ End quote…. [I]t is our business when a candidate for President claims the political endorsement of foreign leaders. At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy.”
Fair enough. This week, we learned that Russia’s anti-democratic president, Vladimir Putin, and Iran’s theocratic Supreme National Security Council chief, Hasan Rowhani, both prefer another four years of Bush.
So, Dick, do Americans have a right to know what Bush is saying to Russia and Iran that makes them so supportive of his candidacy?