Branstad more pathetic than statesmanlike
What is bad for the country is not good for Iowa
Branstad sticking by ‘old friend’
This Rod Boshart / Quad City Times (QCT) front page article of a couple days ago describes Iowa Governor Branstad’s equivocations in pursuit of sucking up to a brutal Chinese dictator. Don’t mistake the QCT article as critical. There is no doubt the QCT takes delight in publicizing a wedge matter that Branstad and elements of the GOPe create by not letting “foreign relations” be a consideration when it comes to “doin’ bidness.” But more so the QCT article serves Branstad’s pathetic outreach in the amount of space it provides for his equivocations and excuses.
Consider the extremely important pro-America positions taking by the Republican presidential candidates mentioned with Branstad’s response.
Walker, Rubio and GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina issued separate calls this week for Obama to cancel a planned state visit for Xi to the White House next month given issues of cyber security, stock market and currency turmoil, human rights violations and a South China Sea military buildup that have cropped up under Xi’s watch.
But Branstad, who traveled with Walker to China for a 2013 trade mission, brushed aside those criticisms and said he has made a “long-shot” invitation and would welcome a return visit to Iowa by the Chinese president during his upcoming American visit as Iowa works to build on a record $15.1 billion export year. That puts him at odds with some members of his own political party.
“I respect their different viewpoints. I understand that right now we’re going through some challenges and a rocky relationship and China itself is facing some big internal problems,” Branstad told reporters.
The detail of the costs of Xi’s acts of war, including against the US and its neighbors, even since Xi’s last visit, are lost on the QCT and dismissed by Governor Branstad. By the sort of actions Xi has overseen he is no friend of Iowans or this country. How pathetic of our old friend Terry Branstad to claim such friendship with tyrants. The picture below is of a group of ethnic and other protesters who held signs in Chinese while facing the porch of a residence in Muscatine where Branstad greeted his “old friend” one evening in February, 2012. Given the tentacles of Xi’s brutal government they showed real courage.
veritaspac.com photo
