At a town hall meeting in Iowa on Friday, Dennis Kucinich offered an eye-catching twist on his usual stump speech when he held up Hezbollah as a model for the effectiveness of using social services as a way to win hearts and minds. "Did you notice in Lebanon what Hezbollah did? Lebanon became a democracy some time ago. And while their government was getting underway, Hezbollah went into southern Lebanon and provided health clinics to some of the people there and schools, and they built their support by having done so," Kucinich said. "That kind of diplomacy is something that would help America become stronger around the world and help people understand that our interest is an interest toward modernity and goodness and freedom for all people of the world."

Oh, wait, nevermind... That would be Mitt Romney. Let's see how long it takes for the rest of the Republicans to mock him as an Israel-hating terrorist-hugger, hopelessly naive when it comes to foreign policy, and for Romney to come back with some kind of "all options are on the table" address.

I am always disgusted by the biennial spectacle of Democrats acting tough by giving "muscular", "hawkish" speeches. Maybe there's some image to be dispelled in the minds of pre-Vietnam generations, but all it communicates to me is cringing, calculated pandering. Everyone agrees that we occasionally have to kick ass rather than just chew bubblegum, so the only purpose of this rhetoric is to project toughness, and its main effect is to shift attention to violent solutions.

And perversely, the pandering may even start to be a political liability. Just as the country is overwhelmingly turning against Iraq in particular and militaristic foreign policy in general, the Republicans are (unsurprisingly) emphasizing soft diplomacy. Yet the Democrats persist in trying to appear "muscular." Isn't it ironic.