Over at National Review, Jim Geraghty quotes Michael Hirsh’s summary of Hillary Clinton’s attitude toward North Korea:
Other pressing issues, such as North Korea’s nuclear program, she simply put off. Her policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea, under which Washington refused to offer any new incentives to Pyongyang in the hopes of restarting nuclear disarmament talks, did not work. The problem festered for four years, and as soon as Clinton left office, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greeted her successor with yet another nuclear test.
Geraghty plainly disapproves of this. No incentives for nuke talks! But when we offered incentives for an actual nuclear freeze—to Iran—conservatives went ballistic. I can only imagine how they would have reacted if Hillary had done for North Korea what Geraghty is lamenting she failed to do.
Flip-flop criticism of political opponents is pretty common. But it’s supposed to be a wee bit subtler than this. Come on, guys.
