The love-in quotient

Democrats just want to be loved. That's the dominant theme of this week's coalition of the needy confab in Boston. If John Kerry gets elected president, we can all wake up on Nov. 3, look in the mirror and collectively paraphrase the famous words of "Saturday Night Live" character Stuart Smalley: "We're smart enough, strong enough and, by golly, people like us!"

Too bad the world doesn't work that way.

"Stronger at home, more respected in the world," is the theme of this year's Democratic convention and speech after speech tries to drive home that point. Yet pursuing respect and likability as the ultimate goal in a dangerous world is both unrealistic and perilous for American safety. But the people pleasers persist.

Casual viewers need to recognize that the repetition of this slogan is no accident. Democratic convention staff (Republicans do the same) utilize teams of people (usually Hill staff, lobbyists and policy gurus) who work for the week as speechwriters. They sit in small cubicles in the Fleet Center reviewing, vetting, and in the case of Al Gore (according to mediareports), rewritingentire speeches. They make sure every word utteredfromthe podium supports the underlyingKerry message -- and you thought these folks came up with these things on their own.

Overandover again, Democrats during the last several nights came back to this theme of respect. Former President Jimmy Carter read the talking points well Monday night when he said, "The United States has alienated its allies, dismayed its friends and inadvertently gratified its enemies by proclaiming a confused and disturbing strategy of preemptive war. As a result, "the world resents us."

Despite the many honorable things the former president has done since his defeat by Ronald Reagan, he gave a "viciously negative speech," according to Tim Graham, writing for the National Review Online. I agree. And unless you have amnesia, it's a little hard to accept the message "Stronger at home, more respected in the world" from the lips of Jimmy Carter. During his tenure, I remember gas lines, double-digit inflation at home, and America held hostage by Islamist radicals in Iran. Mr. Carter's policies while president, of "speaking softly and leaving the stick in the closet," did not generate a lot of respect either here or abroad.

Then there were references by Ted Kennedy and others to the "glory years" of the Clinton-Gore administration, when America had so much "respect" in the world that Islamist terrorists first tried to destroy the World Trade Center, attacked the USS Cole and destroyed our embassies in East Africa. Democrats now say John Kerry would whip the world into shape. He would lead a broad coalition against terrorism that would include who -- France? Spain? And how would he do this?

Seeking "respect" in the world and having others like us should not be our highest ambition. Yet that is precisely the highest aspiration for the coalition of the needy in Boston. I, too, wish the world were different, but terrorism destroys the Democrats' wish for a comfortable, self-indulgent world where everyone likes us -- if it were only so.

Wishful thinking won't win the war on terror. And it won't make the world respect us more, either. Wishful thinking did not end the Iranian hostage crisis for Democrats when Jimmy Carter was president, nor did it deter repeated terrorist attacks against U.S. interests during the Clinton-Gore administration.

One can't accurately gauge how many lives were saved abroad because of President Bush's pre-emptive policies aimed at draining the terrorist swamp in the Middle East or by tough new domestic security actions generated by the Patriot Act here at home. And while there is nothing we can do to make the world community "like" us more, despite Democrats' fondest hopes, I do know this administration's actions have generated a healthy dose of respect for the resolve of America in fighting terrorism among our enemies.

Trying to please people and wanting to be liked often gets adolescents in trouble. I understand my kids' desire to act in a way that boosts their popularity, but I expect more from the person who wants to lead this country. The unrealistic prescription peddled by Democrats this week is unwise, unrealistic and unsafe for our national security.