Posted by
THE UNREPENTANT LIBERTARIAN on Friday, March 06, 2009 11:22:30 AM
President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week. His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling. First Brown wasn't granted a press conference with flags, then one was hastily arranged in the Oval office after the Brits had to beg. Obama looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than welcoming the British leader to his office and topped it all with his choice of present (*) for the PM. A box of 25 DVDS including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars? Oh, give me strength. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic. Even Gordon Brown will have seen those films too often already.
And this man is supposed to keep us safe from terrorists? To build alliances with other countries? To lead the nation through comprehensive health care reform?
If Obama is as incredibly intelligent as his disciples tell us, then how come he could not handle this routine diplomatic matter better than a 12-year-old? Imagine this guy in the midst of an international crisis. Like Israel taking out Iran's nuclear reactor.
This was coupled with Michelle Obama's casual choice of gifts for the Brown sons - matching models of the helicopter which ferry her husband around. While Sarah Brown had spent time choosing gifts for the Obama girls, Michelle had clearly sent an aide to the White House gift shop at the last moment. All in all, he doesn't think much of us [Brits].
Darn right he doesn't. Obama was raised in the context of radical islam and radical Marxism, which together create the perfect storm of anti-Western-Civilization demagoguery. He would rather cozy up with Hamas (to whom he just wrote a check for $900 million worth of American taxpayers' money) than preserve the free world that let him become something more than his hut-dwelling brother in Nairobi.
But what's this? Something, suddenly, seems to have made the Obama White House perk up and start to take an interest in the Brits. The Queen has invited the President to tea when he's here for the G20 in April. And he's in through the front door of Buckingham Palace faster than a Harley Davidson roaring along Route 66. Note how the coolness of Team Obama disappears when a bit of regal glamour is introduced into the equation. He might not like the Brits, but he can recognise a global superstar when he encounters one. He wants to be associated with her. He's shameless.
And unintelligent. After all, we are talking about a man who needs a teleprompter to order at McDonald's.
If Obama, or someone in his inner circle, had spent two minutes thinking about what present to get Brown then they could easily have come up with something appropriate. He likes books. He loves American history. Get him a signed first edition of a good Robert Dallek book such as the brilliant Flawed Giant on LBJ. Come to think of it, Obama should read it too, if he hasn't yet, as it reveals a great deal about how a Presidency can go so wrong.
Well said.