Potomac Correspondence: It Might Be Too Early, but…

This month, for three days, from the 10th to the 12th, in a hotel near the north part of Washington’s National Zoo, the Republican Party’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was held.

I thought this established yearly event was difficult to make into a news article, but because influential statesmen and rumored candidates for next year’s presidential election assembled, they seemed to be half-mocking me with their frequent visits.

Actually, this hotel, just before the Japan-America outbreak of war, was a high-class apartment where, during Japan-America negotiations, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who severely tormented the Japanese side, and other high government officials lived. When I thought about how, in order to attend negotiations in absolute secrecy, U.S.-stationed ambassador Kichisaburou Nomura frequently went back and forth to and from this place, I was deeply moved.

Every day thousands of people gather in the assembly hall after a successful year and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney criticizes “Obama Diplomacy” with a large chorus. If you saw only this, it would already seem like the presidential election was in full swing.

Mr. Romney criticizes entering into the new nuclear disarmament pact as taking a weak attitude towards Russia and criticizes Republican Party Senate leader John Thune’s terrorist control as unsatisfactory.

As far as economic measures, it looks as if the conservative camp criticizes Obama’s “clinging strategy,” meeting the Republican Party half-way, directly. It might be too early, but there are indications that next year’s presidential election will concern things such as Iran, China and North Korea policy, and “inward facing Obama diplomacy” (Newsweek) will certainly become one point at issue.