Maggie's Farm

As an American expat in the CR, I'm cheering for Klaus, too, but for me he can't be US president on account of foreign policy.

Klaus's rejection of global warmingism, lefty NGOs, and the EU are refreshing. He knows his Hayek and Freidman!

Havel is no mentor to Klaus - they are longtime bitter political rivals going back to the Civic Forum in 89. Havel is an idealist, an artist, a Bohemian; Klaus is a pragmatic, a square, not at home among a bunch of artists and gesture-making but impractical dissidents. Havel is a lot better when it comes to confronting dictators, Klaus is lukewarm on that.

Klaus writes that global warmingism is a greater threat than communism. I disagree. Actually, they're two parts of the same thing. The all-encompassing green ideology (for those who indulge in it as such) looks a lot like the "socialism with a human face" the Czechs thought would work for them back in 68. One basic mistake of both is thinking that society can be or should be planned and controlled instead of being allowed to develop freely.

Klaus criticizes the NGO's and human rights orgainizations - but his criticism can come acrosss as being statist. He was a little too friendly with Milosovic and the Serbs in the 1990s. He was in the doghouse with Bush for several years, having suggested to the US ambassador in 2003 that the US was capable of planting WMD in Iraq if none were found. Klaus can sometimes be a crank.

In the Balkans or Iraq, or facing down the dictators of the world, Havel is a better partner for the US. But economically, Klaus is on far more solid ground than Havel, an artsy-fartsy type who seems to look down his nose at economics and business in general.

Despite the devil in the details of his arguments, and the sometimes glaring differences between Klaus's political theory and practice as premier in the 90s (well, he is an avowed pragmatist, after all), it's still a great thrill to see someone stand up and say a clear no to the greenie doomsday mongers and the inveterate socialism of the EU. The other EU leaders all think he's bonkers, but then the Czechs have a long history of producing world-shaking heretics. I got my fingers crossed he'll get elected for another term next year.