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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:27 am Post subject: No meeting with Bush for GNP bigwig |
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With all the Korean Left-bashing that goes on on this forum(and hey, I don't begrudge ya it), I just thought I'd post a story portraying the GNP in an inept light.
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A series of bad assumptions and false announcements led Lee Myung-bak�s backers to think they had scored a coup by securing a meeting between their man and U.S. President George W. Bush, but instead the meeting has been rebuffed and the GNP presidential candidate has suffered an embarrassing gaffe.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement Tuesday that there are no plans for a meeting between Lee and Bush, reaffirming what the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said a day earlier.
A source familiar with the circumstances said yesterday that using Kang Young-woo, the White House policy adviser of the U.S. National Council on Disability, as a go-between with the White House was a mistake.
The source said that a letter requesting the meeting was sent to the White House�s domestic policy council last month. But that office is not in charge of arranging meetings between foreign dignitaries and the president. Melissa Bennett, special assistant to the president and director for appointments and scheduling, had replied to the letter saying, �Your request will be given every consideration.�
Nevertheless, Kang and the GNP concluded that the meeting had been approved and made an announcement without bothering to get further details from the White House. Kang alerted Korean correspondents in Washington about the meeting last week, setting off a flurry of front page stories. Despite the official rebuff from Washington, Kang told the JoongAng Ilbo that the meeting decision was still �standing,� but he also backpedaled, saying that the news coverage has raised the possibility that the meeting will not take place.
�The United States remembers vividly the anti-U.S. sentiment in the aftermath of the death of two South Korean middle school students by a U.S. military vehicle in 2002,� said the source. �A rule has been set that there will be no actions that can give the impression the United States has interfered with the presidential elections.�
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I'm still trying to figure out how they reached the conclusion that the meeting was a go-ahead. I can understand a non-English speaker thinking that "given every consideration" means "we accept". But shouldn't that Kang guy have told them what the letter really meant?
My guess is that Kang knew the meeting wasn't going ahead, but told them it was because they were paying him a consulting fee.
And I'm not clear about who exactly this Kang guy is.
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| White House policy adviser of the U.S. National Council on Disability |
Does he work for the White House, or for this council? If the council is a private lobbying firm for the disabled, the GNP were pretty clueless to think that they'd be the kind of people to arrange White House engagements for Korean politicians.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2881109 |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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I read that article the other day and was equally puzzled. Why would a legitimate candidate for president go through someone on an obscure Council hoping to arrange a meeting with POTUS? There are normal channels for this sort of thing.
The most interesting part to me was the formal policy statement: �The United States remembers vividly the anti-U.S. sentiment in the aftermath of the death of two South Korean middle school students by a U.S. military vehicle in 2002,� said the source. �A rule has been set that there will be no actions that can give the impression the United States has interfered with the presidential elections.�
That is the correct policy. Moreover, with the progressives in such disarray, why risk snatching defeat from the jaws of an almost certain victory? |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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Why would a legitimate candidate for president go through someone on an obscure Council hoping to arrange a meeting with POTUS? There are normal channels for this sort of thing.
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My guess is that this Kang guy sold them on his supposedly being a bigshot Washington insider, and a fellow Korean to boot. The "normal channels" that you cite might not have delivered the meeting in time for the upcoming election, so they might have figured Kang was their best bet.
And I don't think opposition parties, even conservative ones, would have the same degree of access to those channels that governments do.
I remember Stockwell Day, when he was opposition leader in Canada, getting a meeting with Bush. As I recall, the White House did not allow photographs of the event, citing protocol for meetings with opposition leaders. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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Moreover, with the progressives in such disarray, why risk snatching defeat from the jaws of an almost certain victory?
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Well, they probably didn't realize the risks involved when they set out on this venture.
But yeah. While I think the next election is still the GNP's to lose, we probably wouldn't want to underestimate their capacity for incompetence. |
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Ilsanman
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea
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| Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:05 am Post subject: |
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America released a statement that said 'we have no interest in becoming involved in the upcoming SK election.'
They did the right thing. I wonder if people can see that. |
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