An Incompetent Cat-Herder, Maybe.
This is going on MSM-wide, but I'll just finger Bloomberg for assininely attributing incompetence to the Bush administration for the Dubai Ports World deal:
"Bush Defeat on Ports Deal Dents Image if Competence"
There may be cause to argue incompetence elsewhere, but not here. The cratering of this deal was solely at the hands of ignorance, fear and the political instinct to cover your ass. We are a (relatively) free-trading nation and we failed to live up to our principles and failed to see our broader interest on this one...and, make no mistake, it was a bunch of impetulent phonies in Congress that did it. Bush can only be seen as incompetent insofar as he failed to prevent ignorant hysteria among this limited population of 535.
The WSJ has it right today...let's hope this is just an isolated hissy fit, and not an emerging pattern of protectionism, which would be a disaster of the "first order."
UPDATE: And it gets more depressing...from Political Diary...
The leaders of the United Arab Emirates are not likely to soon forget their humiliation in having to back away from the deal after 14 U.S. agencies had cleared the arrangement. "They are going to lose a lot of face. In the Arab culture, losing face is a big deal," a former government official told The Hill newspaper. He warned that the Emirates now might not be as cooperative on issues of terrorism and intelligence gathering. "We risk losing that help. It is not an empty threat."
There is also the matter of Emirates Airlines, a gold-plated carrier that is the fastest growing airline in the world. Last year, it bought 42 Boeing 777 aircraft in a deal worth $9.7 billion to the Chicago-based manufacturer. The purchase made Dubai Boeing's largest customer for that key aircraft. This year, the resource-rich kingdom will choose whether to buy Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner or a competing aircraft, the European-made Airbus A350.
"I wouldn't bet a lot of money on Dubai going with Boeing again," one aviation expert told me. "The deal is potentially huge, Dubai is on track to buy 50 new wide-body aircraft over the next four years. But in the running for that contract, the U.S. has clearly hurt yourself with this hysterical reaction to the port deal."
If Boeing ends up losing the next Dubai bid, one sight you can expect not to see on Capitol Hill is a hearing that includes testimony from the laid-off Boeing workers who would have kept their jobs if Boeing had won the contract.
"Bush Defeat on Ports Deal Dents Image if Competence"
There may be cause to argue incompetence elsewhere, but not here. The cratering of this deal was solely at the hands of ignorance, fear and the political instinct to cover your ass. We are a (relatively) free-trading nation and we failed to live up to our principles and failed to see our broader interest on this one...and, make no mistake, it was a bunch of impetulent phonies in Congress that did it. Bush can only be seen as incompetent insofar as he failed to prevent ignorant hysteria among this limited population of 535.
The WSJ has it right today...let's hope this is just an isolated hissy fit, and not an emerging pattern of protectionism, which would be a disaster of the "first order."
UPDATE: And it gets more depressing...from Political Diary...
The leaders of the United Arab Emirates are not likely to soon forget their humiliation in having to back away from the deal after 14 U.S. agencies had cleared the arrangement. "They are going to lose a lot of face. In the Arab culture, losing face is a big deal," a former government official told The Hill newspaper. He warned that the Emirates now might not be as cooperative on issues of terrorism and intelligence gathering. "We risk losing that help. It is not an empty threat."
There is also the matter of Emirates Airlines, a gold-plated carrier that is the fastest growing airline in the world. Last year, it bought 42 Boeing 777 aircraft in a deal worth $9.7 billion to the Chicago-based manufacturer. The purchase made Dubai Boeing's largest customer for that key aircraft. This year, the resource-rich kingdom will choose whether to buy Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner or a competing aircraft, the European-made Airbus A350.
"I wouldn't bet a lot of money on Dubai going with Boeing again," one aviation expert told me. "The deal is potentially huge, Dubai is on track to buy 50 new wide-body aircraft over the next four years. But in the running for that contract, the U.S. has clearly hurt yourself with this hysterical reaction to the port deal."
If Boeing ends up losing the next Dubai bid, one sight you can expect not to see on Capitol Hill is a hearing that includes testimony from the laid-off Boeing workers who would have kept their jobs if Boeing had won the contract.
posted by Donny Baseball at 8:37 AM
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