A Little Help from My Friends - Published in Capitol File Magazine, Fall 2008

By Peter Schechter Saturday, 04 October 2008 00:00

Every recent US president has a favorite foreign friend.  

Ronald Reagan yucked it up with Helmut Kohl, the roly-poly German chancellor whose hard-line oversaw the Berlin Wall’s destruction and Germany’s reunification.  Who can forget Bill Clinton’s roaring laughter with Boris Yeltsin and his hip, new-left friendship with Britain’s Tony Blair.  George Bush inherited – and deepened -- the Blair friendship as their post-September 11th administrations mutated from mere governments to full-fledged causes.  President Bush admirably became one of the first presidents to befriend an Asian leader; remember the Nashville country music tour our President organized for Japan’s Junichiro Koizumi’s swan song U.S. visit. So, it’s time to ask who will be Barack Obama’s best overseas friend or John McCain’s closest foreign pal?

Well one thing is sure.  It won’t be Russia’s Vladimir Putin.  Neither candidate is going to encore President Bush’s longing-look into the Russian leader’s eyes.  After Georgia, Putin is off the A list.

An Obama victory will rekindle the world’s lost belief that America is the place where anything is possible.  But cynical Washingtonians will witness a previously-unthinkable Franco-American rapprochement not seen since Jeffersonian times.  The center left Barack Obama and the center right French President Nicolas Sarkozy are made for each other: mold-breakers who wrested politics from elites; change agents espousing profound transformations; western leaders who see near-messianic roles for their countries and themselves. Watch those two. They will tango.

McCain’s buddies are harder to predict.  As the older-school candidate, John McCain will gravitate towards Britain, but it’s hard to get close to the dour Gordon Brown.  In a year, however, the United Kingdom could well be governed by a new Tory government of David Cameron. If he indeed becomes Prime Minister, young Cameron will appeal to McCain’s nonconformist, mercurial instincts.  After a campaign straight-jacketed by Bush conservatives, McCain will itch to get back to the business of being McCain. Cameron’s re-founding 21st century conservatism of environmentalism, social values and a clearly defined role for a more efficient government will appeal to America’s maverick new Republican president.  

Both will need help from their friends.  It’s a tough world out there.