" Americans rank President Clinton No. 1 among postwar U.S. presidents on foreign policy success, up from eighth place in the middle of his first term, according to a poll released today ", says David Briscoe of the Associated Press. This is not to say that Briscoe himself believes this rather incredible claim ( though he may ), as he is only reporting the released polling data. Finally though, this is proof positive that the polling data is ficticious or maliciously false! It is just too much to believe that a ' twilight zone ' poll like this could come out on the day after everyone but liberal Democrats is blasting the administration for giving away the nuclear farm to the vicious totalitarianistic communist dictatorship in The People's Republic of China!

If there ever was a doubt that the polls and the media are playing fast and loose with the truth, this is it! What would be the only thing the Clinton Whitehouse could do to counter the fact-based extreme criticism of it's utterly failed foreign policy all over the world, but publicize a poll saying how much the American people love and support the job Clinton is doing with said foreign policy. So here it comes, on the Monday after a Sunday filled with mass criticism of the campaigner-in-chief, the prayed for poll mysteriously arrives? This just cannot be a coincidence. This is quite obviously an attempted manipulation of the American public, ala' " Wag The Dog "!

Briscoe continued, " The survey was published today in the journal Foreign Policy. Clinton soared past Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush and Carter, ranked in that order in 1994, to top the poll of presidents with 'very successful' foreign policy performance since World War II. " Okay man, what are the ' successes ' that Clinton has acheived? Making the bombing of Iraq a daily occurence? Successfully destroying an innocent aspirin factory in Sudan? Expending millions of dollars of cruise missiles to set fire to a tent farm in the mountains of Afganistan?

Continuing, this may explain the numbers but not the timing of the release of this poll: " Gallup, which has conducted the survey in a similar manner since the 1970s, interviewed 1,507 men and women in October and November...Separately, the pollsters interviewed 379 policy leaders, including members of Congress, administration officials, international business figures and members of the news media ". Way back last year at the time of this poll, it was not as clear how bad the foreign policy debacles actually were in reference to Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, The Mideast, Northern Ireland, North Korea, Red China ( P.R.C. ), and Russia. The timing of the release of this poll is quite suspect and makes me think long and hard about the association of ' CNN ' with Gallup! Could the true liberal colors of the Gallup organization be finally showing?

*Bosnia stalled. U.S. troops are still in Macedonia, years after Clinton promised to bring them home!

*Iraq. Clinton bombed UNSCOM out of Iraq and continues a daily routine bombing campaign achieving nothing. In fact this was reported just last week, " James Woolsey told a House panel on Wednesday that the strikes offer only temporary military victories and are doing nothing to weaken Saddam's regime ".

*Kosovo. The on-again off-again peace process continues as the body bags pile up.

*The Mideast. Just today, Netanyahu issues a statement telling Arafat not to announce a Palestinian state, or face grave consequences. Obviously, months ago Israel stopped troop withdrawls from the West Bank and Gaza amid renewed terrorist violence!

*Northern Ireland. Just last week AP reported, " Sounding upbeat on a day of dashed hope, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern appealed today for Northern Ireland's deadlocked politicians to achieve 'a final breakthrough' before the first anniversary of the Belfast peace accord. " There has been no breakthrough as of this date and the IRA has not disarmed. What a great foreign policy victory ( and they got Nobels for this? )!

*North Korea still wants a three hundred million dollar fee ( bribe ) to grant us access to a suspected underground nuclear weapons site.

*Red China ( The People's Republic of China ) still has every human rights violation in the book, jailing members of the China Democracy Party, as well as bribing and stealing it's way to nuclear weapons warhead and delivery system technology directly from us!

*Russia is still absorbing International Monetary Fund cash like a sponge, while the Russian Mafia's Swiss bank account balances swell!

Today Republican Senator John McCain called Bill Clinton's foreign policy, " photo-op foreign policy ". That just about sums it all up! Whether you call it " photo-op " or " wag the dog ", it all boils down to a public opinion approach to politics, as opposed to a fix the real problem approach. Remember how convenient it was for the Palestinians to burn the plastic U.S. flags they were given to wave at Clinton, when he helped Yasser Arafat dedicate ' Terrorist International Airport ' in Gaza City? I bet the Whitehouse never thought about that happening!

So much for the validity of the factual basis of this phoney ( or late ) poll. You will really be able to judge the motivation of anyone quoting this poll, if they don't reveal the actual timing ( the date ) of it's sampling!

- Bongo ( Rub my face in it, if you think Clinton's foreign policy equals or exceeds that of Ronald Reagan bringing a close to The Cold War! )