Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton is speaking out on the budget debate — but don’t construe that to mean he is closer to getting into the race for the White House.
Bolton’s office generally sends out one or two emails a week directing recipients to Amb. Bolton’s most recent op-eds, invariably on some matter of foreign policy. But on Wednesday, Bolton’s office emailed a statement from the potential 2012 presidential candidate on the current debt ceiling battle.
“All conservatives, especially those concerned with American national security, should support the Boehner Plan,” the statement read in part.
Though he conceded the plan was “far from perfect,” he warned that “We cannot know exactly how financial markets will react to the various scenarios that might play out over the next several days, but the potential cost of finding out what the defeat of the Boehner Plan would be is not worth the risk.”
Bolton told The Daily Caller that people shouldn’t construe the unusual occurrence of him issuing an economic policy position as an indication he is broadening his political area of focus in anticipation of entering the race for the White House.
“Good question,” Bolton said while laughing when asked whether the statement indicates he is preparing to launch his candidacy. “No, I have felt for sometime … that if I did decide to run obviously I had to run a full scope campaign because even though my priority is to get national security back in the center of the debate, if you only run on one issue, you are immediately characterized as a one issue candidate and that defeats the whole purpose of running.”
While he said his budget statement “doesn’t foreshadow a decision,” it also “certainly doesn’t preclude a decision to run, that’s for sure.”
Bolton first indicated he was considering a run for the White House in an interview with TheDC last August. He has said he will make a decision by Labor Day.
Ambassador Bolton’s statement on the Boehner Plan and the debt ceiling
All conservatives, especially those concerned with American national security, should support the Boehner Plan. That plan, as Speaker Boehner himself understands, is far from perfect. But there is no reasonable prospect, given the current political balance of power in Washington, to get anything better on the debt ceiling issue. We cannot know exactly how financial markets will react to the various scenarios that might play out over the next several days, but the potential cost of finding out what the defeat of the Boehner Plan would be is not worth the risk.
If America’s prospects for economic recovery are gravely impaired, if President Obama is able to turn the inevitable turmoil to his political advantage and achieve re-election, and if we face four more years of his debilitating economic and national security policies, the safety and security of America in the world may be damaged irreparably.
In politics as in battle, conservatives should remember Carl von Clausewitz’s sage advice to be satisfied with identifying and achieving “the culminating point of victory.” That does not mean total victory, but rather the maximum that can be achieved in any particular engagement. We should not stop short, but neither should we risk what we have achieved by proceeding dangerously beyond that culminating point.
There are many more battles to be fought to rescue our economy and preserve our national defenses. But on this present issue, we have reached the culminating point of victory. Let’s not throw it away.