Glenn Reynolds ponders:

What I don't get is that Kerry's big claim is that he'll get us allies, but it seems that whenever you turn around he's dissing somebody on our side. Last week it was Australia, and then there were those remarks about a "fraudulent coalition" in Iraq. This seems to me to be no way to win friends, though I suspect that it may influence people.

It's schoolyard politics, I tell ya. When Kerry says "allies" and Bush says "allies", they are talking about two different sets of nations. Same word, different meanings.

Bush is out hanging with the 'geeks', 'nerds' -- the Poles, the Brits, and Italians, Danes, Japanese (etc.) and, God bless 'em, the Aussies. The nations that wear generic jeans, would never carry a switchblade to school, and think the chess club and debate team are great fun.

Meanwhile, Kerry's concerned we're not fitting in the the really cool kids, the image-makers. You know, the French, the Germans, Kofi Anan, not to mention all those tough-looking dictatorships, standing over in the corner of the schoolyard, smoking, glaring at the geeks, and muttering softly to each other.

It's all a matter of who you think is important, and whose opinion you think counts. Kerry wants us to have allies. He's just apparently thinks we need a completely different set than those we have now.