Bubba's Done It Again

Hi Everyone,

No, he hasn't done that again. Thankfully, what he did this time is much more beneficial. I have some very good news, coming back to the blog. Remember those two journalists, I believe their names were Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were taken hostage while doing a story in North Korea a few months ago? Well, they were released just this week, and they returned home and gave a tearful and heartfelt homecoming statement. In it they thanked President and Secretary Clinton, Vice President Gore, and President Obama for working to get them released. We are all obviously very happy and filled with joy that these two American journalists (who were doing a story on life in North Korea) are home safely, rather than at a North Korean work camp, where their chances of survival would have been virtually nil.

So where does good ol' Bill Clinton fit into this? Well, it turns out the women worked for a channel in San Francisco run by Former Vice President Al Gore, so he was working to get them released. Earlier this week, Former President Bill Clinton, the Secretary of State's Husband, traveled to North Korea to visit North Korean President Kim Jong-il and get the two women pardoned. CNN did an in-depth story on the event here. The point is that when we talked to the bad guys, we got our people out of there and home safely. Richard Nixon knew this when he talked to Mao, who had murdered many of his own people; even Ronald Reagan sat down with the leaders of the "Evil Empire." Imagine the result if this had happened when Bush was President. I don't even want to think about it.

One speculates that the State Department, under Secretary Hillary Clinton's and President Obama's direction, thought that this was a good idea, and okayed Bill's decision to go. Well, they certainly got it right on the money. It was a novel approach of having the current President perhaps collaborating with one of his Predecessors. Interesting how neither Clinton nor Obama was rushing to grab credit for the idea. Really well played on both their parts. As far as Clinton goes, as flawed a human being as he was, he does deserve some credit, especially for this. So, Mr. President, for what it's worth, the Daily Reeder salutes you!

Predictably, there are some critics of this approach who are sniping not only at this action, but at the very notion of getting the two journalists out of there. Dick Morris said that they should have "accepted the consequences of their decision to go into North Korea." John Bolton implied that we had somehow "rewarded" the North Korean government by doing this (don't ask me how). What? I thought we were supposed to be protecting Americans.

Isn't that the reason we've been fighting a war on terror? This is one reason it's very important not to just talk the talk of doing whatever you can to protect Americans, but to walk the walk, as President Clinton did throughout his Presidency. Now he showed that he wasn't going to stop just because of retirement. Let me close by just, again, expressing my profound joy and happiness that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are now home safely in America. Ms. Ling, Ms. Lee, the Daily Reeder salutes you, your courage, and wishes you well in your most important work.

This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.