KAREN BLEIER
“I won’t get my panties in a wedge because of what I am hearing from the political candidates,” former Secretary of State James Baker said this week. The former Treasury secretary and White House chief of staff (under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) said he isn’t concerned about the presidential election, even if Donald Trump wins. “What they say in the campaign and what they do once they are in the White House are not the same thing. I don’t care who wins, whoever gets to the White House. Presidents can do a lot but they can only do so much through the system of checks and balances.” Baker met with Trump last month and came out of the conversation critical of the candidate’s policies. “Isolationism and protectionism won’t work,” he said. “Don’t talk no trade deals; make a better deal. Don’t talk about making Japan and South Korea nuclear powers. Don’t talk about negotiating down the American debt.” In the end, though, the diplomat dubbed the Velvet Hammer said he wasn’t concerned. “Presidents are not unilateral rulers. If they did not know that, they will find out soon enough.”