ReSTART

Like Fred Kaplan yesterday, John Kerry demolishes Mitt ("the Man") Romney's attack on the New START treaty point by point, then concludes,

I have nothing against Massachusetts politicians running for president. But the world's most important elected office carries responsibilities, including the duty to check your facts even if you're in a footrace to the right against Sarah Palin. More than that, you need to understand that when it comes to nuclear danger, the nation's security is more important than scoring cheap political points.

If it was a just world, that would leave a mark. But it is not a just world. Nevertheless, if Romney wants to debate his world view versus the president's, he's free to do so. If he wants to extol the virtues of the "Bush doctrine (assuming he knows what it is)," endorse the experiment in American hegemony for which we're still paying a massive price in Afghanistan and Iraq, if he wants the world to do our bidding out of fear rather than mutual self-interest, if he is willing to accept that some countries won't cooperate because they despise our arrogant behavior, then he should do just that. Not hide those attributes in an attack on a treaty that has the support of the Pentagon, Sen. Lugar, Henry Kissinger, et. al., and of which he appears entirely ignorant.