(Remember this brilliant piece of Friedman logic? h/t Mugsy)
Thomas Friedman is the pundit responsible for such logic fails as advocating for "six more months to turn the corner" in Iraq so many times that his name became synonymous for that timeframe. He also wrote that today's leaders show their leadership by "taking away services" from the people. And that Bush kept us safe. And that Iraqis should suck on our invasion and occupation of their sovereign nation when they posed no threat to us. Or above, when he suggested that America had already tried the black guy in the White House and now it was time to try something different, namely a white conservative male.
Clearly, there is no bar for being wrong when you're so comfortably ensconced in PunditWorld. The only place to fall is up, apparently. So keep that in mind when you hear who Tom Friedman thinks should be Secretary of State, rather than that controversial Susan Rice or even John Kerry:
President Obama is assembling his new national security team, with Senator John Kerry possibly heading for the Pentagon and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice the perceived front-runner to become secretary of state. Kerry is an excellent choice for defense. I don’t know Rice at all, so I have no opinion on her fitness for the job, but I think the contrived flap over her Libya comments certainly shouldn’t disqualify her. That said, my own nominee for secretary of state would be the current education secretary, Arne Duncan.
Yes, yes, I know. Duncan is not seeking the job and is not the least bit likely to be appointed. But I’m nominating him because I think this is an important time to ask the question of not just who should be secretary of state, but what should the secretary of state be in the 21st century?
Could anything demonstrate the shallowness of understanding that Friedman consistently employs than this? Friedman continues touting Duncan by pointing out that he has lot of experience "negotiating" with teachers' unions and dealing with various factions (i.e., parents vs. teachers vs. schools):
Trust me, if you can cut such deals with Randi Weingarten, who is president of the American Federation of Teachers, you can do them with Vladimir Putin and Bibi Netanyahu
Oh help me, Rhonda. This might be the dumbest thing Friedman has ever written, and as you can see above, that's really saying something.
How lucky for all of us that entrenched Villager Friedman with his deep understanding of foreign policy, diplomacy and world politics, is given multiple platforms from which to give us these little eclats of wisdom.
