Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t understand the increasing volume of comment that Tony Blair is unhappy about the rise of Howard Dean because his fortunes are so tied to George Bush.
It’s understandable that Downing Street would prefer a Clinton-style New Democrat, like Wes Clark perhaps. After all, New Labour owes a clear debt to Clinton-style politics. But cast your mind back to 2000. Then all the commentators were convinced that a Republican victory would plunge Blair into the cold internationally. After all, he was great pals with Clinton.
The reality is that if Dean or any other Democrat wins in November, both Blair and the president-elect will be keen to establish a good relationship. And it’s odds on that they will succeed famously.
Via Richard Gayle, I’ve discovered Henry Waxman’s wonderful site tracking the Bush administration’s manipulation, interference and distortion of science. All of the methods chronicled by Ron Suskind and Paul O’Neill regarding shelving intelligent economic analysis for short-term political gain writ large in another sphere.