Dan Drezner, who has been teasing us with his Kerry-like indecisiveness as to whom to vote for in this election, is leaning ever so slightly toward Kerry.
A few days ago, he asked:
Which is better: a foreign policy with a clearly articulated grand strategy but a f#$%ed-up policy process, or a foreign policy with no articulated grand strategy but a superior policy process?
After getting input from Phil Carter, Kevin Drum, Fareed Zakaria, and Matt Yglesias (links and extensive excerpts in Dan’s post), he’s leaning toward the latter.
Honestly, this choice, even if we take its premises for granted, seems obvious to me. I’d rather drive a crappy car that breaks down now and again in bad neighborhoods, but at least know where I’m trying to go than drive a slightly less crappy car that turns around every few minutes because because it’s nuancenator kicks in. Neither option is all that great, to be sure. But there is at least some slight chance of reaching your destination in the first instance. Indeed, in the second instance, even if you somehow got to where you were supposed to be going, how the hell would you know?
