Dean, Then and Now

This was linked on InstaPundit, so it’s hardly a scoop, but I found it so astonishing that I wanted to make sure our readers see it. From yesterday’s Washington Post:
“Though Dean has repeatedly criticized Bush for failing to win international support for the Iraq war, for instance, in June 1998 he defended Clinton’s bombing of Iraq by arguing on the Canadian program, ‘I don’t think we could have built an international coalition to invade or have a substantial bombing of Saddam.’
“During another 1998 appearance on the show, ‘The Editors,’ Dean said it was not worth trying to woo French support on foreign policy initiatives. ‘The French will always do exactly the opposite on what the United States wants regardless of what happens, so we’re never going to have a consistent policy,’ he said.
“Asked about the comment, Dean said he now thinks that because the French ‘have seen how bad things can get with the United States, they might respond to a new president who’s willing to offer them respect again.'”
Huh? Dean’s theory is that now that President Bush has softened the French up, he can lead them back into the fold? Completely bizarre.
More and more, Dean is being revealed as a power-mad opportunist who will do and say anything to advance his own political prospects.
DEACON adds: You are right Rocket Man and, in a way, this is the perverse beauty of the Dean candidacy. Events, and his opportunism, have caused Dean to run as a radical, thus reducing his chances of winning. But in the unlikely event that he wins, there’s no reason to believe that there will be anything particularly radical about his presidency. The prospect of him winning is still a bit frightening, though. Not because he deeply believes anything he says, but because he is ignorant about foreign policy and his instincts don’t seem very good.