Wednesday, April 08, 2009

"President Obama's Spring Apologies Tour" aka His Trip to Europe


Ralph Peters in The New York Post:

Obama means well. Just as Jimmy Carter, his policy godfather, meant well. But the road to embassy takeovers and strategic humiliation is paved with good intentions -- coupled with distressing naivete.

On every stage, Obama draped Lady Liberty in sackcloth and ashes, drawing plentiful applause but no serious economic or security cooperation in return.


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He told the Europeans that the global economic crisis is all our fault. No mention of European greed, overleveraged governments, destructive Euro-loans or Chinese currency manipulation. We did it. Whip us, please.

In return, the Europeans gave him . . . nothing.


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And Obama's disdainful remarks about President Bush were just shabby.

After those overpriced tour T-shirts have shrunk in the wash (trust me -- they will), what will we have gained from Obama's superstar act?


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I believe that our president wants to do the right thing. But he doesn't have a clue how. For now, he's enraptured by the applause. But he hasn't tried to charge his fans for their tickets. And they've already made up their minds they won't have to pay.


To read the rest click on the title for a link. The author has some particularly good point about Obama's trip to Turkey.

UPDATE:

Now, Charles Krauthammer's take on Obama's "Spring Apologies Tour"


To various degrees of directness or obliqueness, he held America guilty for a range of offenses, a partial list of which includes arrogance, having caused the financial crisis, torture, genocide, racism, Hiroshima — he didn't even leave that one out — Guantanamo, of course, an insufficient respect for the Muslim world.



And as we say, what did he get in return? On Afghanistan troops, nothing. On stimulus in Europe, nothing. And on Guantanamo, what did he get? The French offered to take one prisoner. Now, you'd think that is an attempt at Gallic humor. It was a serious offer. I guess the guy that comes out of Guantanamo will have to leave his swim buddy behind.