You wouldn’t know that there’s a war on in Central Europe or much else about our fracturing world if you followed the news this week about America’s top diplomat. He has journeyed to the cradle of isolationists, Chicago, to persuade people that he’s just a nice guy who likes to play rock music and eat breakfast with his kids. And that he likes cheesecake.
It’s not Antony Blinken’s fault that he looks, sounds, and acts like a cosseted notetaker. But delegating most of his real job to the director of the CIA and going out of his way to erode whatever gravitas his position still has are not in his, or his country’s, best interest. Someday, perhaps sooner than people think, America may need a statesman.