I was not on the winning side of the debate, despite giving it the old college try. Thank god for my South African friend Simon Reader, who coached me just before I went on. Mind you, my side felt a bit like Maxime Weygand, the French general who, in June 1940, was happily smoking his pipe back in Syria when he got the call to take over the French army. The Germans had already taken Holland and Belgium and had breached la Ligne Maginot, Gamelin had thrown in the towel, and Paul Reynaud had called for a fresh face to stop the mighty Wehrmacht. ‘Gee, thanks a bunch,’ said Weygand, but took it like a real Frenchman and surrendered to the German army a couple of weeks later.
Two months ago, when I was kindly invited by The Spectator to defend the Donald, he was yet to do an Annie Oakley on his foot. But I’ve always loved lost causes, especially one who is up against a woman who, however inadvertently, will continue Obama’s strategy of destroying western hegemony. I was happy to see Conrad Black again, who by the way debated without notes and wiped the floor with everyone. The one that didn’t race my motor was a boring American man who heads Democrats (yawn) Abroad. He kept name-dropping locations he had visited during the campaign, as if any of us gave a damn where he’d been.
So what else is new? Daniel McCarthy wrote in these pages that Hillary will push for globalist economics, and that, with the support of Beltway insiders — read neocons and other architects of the Iraq disaster — she will be an interventionist and nation-builder. All I can say is heaven help us.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in