State Department Official Makes a Moral Equivalency Between China/Arizona on Human Rights

Bill O'Reilly spent almost half his show eviscerating State Department official Michael Posner for drawing a moral equivalency between China and Arizona on the issue of human rights.

QUESTION: Was there any areas in which China sort of turned the tables and raised its own complaints or concerns about U.S. practices around the globe or at home? Can you give some examples there -

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: Sure. You know, I think - again, this goes back to Ambassador Huntsman's comment. Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy's problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it. We did plenty of that. We had experts from the U.S. side, for example, yesterday, talking about treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context. We had a discussion of racial discrimination. We had a back-and-forth about how each of our societies are dealing with those sorts of questions. ...

QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.

This statement is yet another triumph of ideology over competence in the Obama administration. It's obvious that the Obama administration has no use for the Arizona anti illegal immigration law. In fact, the administration is so married to this position that it never occurred to Posner that in bringing it up with the Chinese he was making a moral equivalency between the law and the human rights record of China, where there's no free speech, political dissidents are jailed, no freedom of movement, among a host of human rights violations.

In a situation like this, there is only one thing to do. Posner needs to be fired summarily, immediately, and ruthlessly. Until that happens, his statement will be played in a loop by media, his opponents, and all over the internet. Posner will become the poster child for the Obama foreign policy and it won't be a compliment.

There's an irony here. This sort of moral equivalency is called smart power foreign policy which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described like this.

We must use what has been called smart power — the full range of tools at our disposal — diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural — picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy.

The only smart thing to do now is to remove Posner immediately. If he isn't gone by the end of the week, watch for Obama to fall back into the low 40's at least temporarily. That's because this statement will continue to get played in a loop until he is removed.