Obama and Chavez
Barack Obama offers a lesson for Republicans. Small affronts and missteps are seen as evidence of inexperience. Large affronts and missteps are the policy of change.
His willingness to cozy up to Venezuelan leftist Hugo Chavez, schmoozing at the Summit of the Americas, while accepting a book from Chavez explaining how Europe and the U.S. had messed it up in Latin America. The little revolutionary, thus, elevated himself not just to equal, but to instructor to pupil Obama.
That’s an opening Obama provided by suggesting abroad that the pre-Obama America has gotten it all wrong and that he’s the change they want. It’s an approach, a new foreign policy, that levels the players and invites the likes of Chavez, the Castro brothers, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il and others down to active terrorists to test him.
Accepting a book –”The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” by Eduardo Galeana – may seem inconsequential. But it’s an indication that Obama can be rolled by America’s adversaries. He’s not yet ready to sit down with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladamir Putin for any serious negotiations affecting our national security. The man needs a little seasoning.
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© 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
217 comments Add your comment
Peter
April 20th, 2009
8:26 am
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA Jim……….. You mean you want to Bomb the world Jim !
Reality Check
April 20th, 2009
8:28 am
So….. let me get this strait ..By accepting a book from Chevez, Obama has relegated himself to a “pupil” of Chavez? i understand that our currect POTUS will NEVER cut the muster with some. You and your ilk would like nothing better than for Obama to trip and fall at every step. To that end, Even when he just talks to other world leaders you see it as some indictment on his ability to protect this country. Get over yourself. The idea that we can Stand on High and preach to the world has has come and gone. It did not work!!! I would argue that Chavez became Stronger Because of the way he stood up to Bush and his Cowboy Bringem on Mentality!! Please understand that it is possible to be both humble and strong without looking like a Bullying blowhard.Give Pres. Obama some time….Maybe both you and Chavez might learn something!
Peter
April 20th, 2009
8:33 am
Jim obviously doesn’t understand what the Godfather taught……… Keep friends close and enemies closer !
Jim would never speak with anyone he didn’t first like would he ? No matter if it meant keeping America safe……..
Gee lesson’s from Bush……. Let’s blow up everyone we don’t like ! Now that’s a policy Jim could live with !
Dusty
April 20th, 2009
8:38 am
Good point, Jim Wooten,
Playing America down is NOT the way to lead. That seems to be the liberal philosophy at this time. Obama did it in Europe and now in Mexico and Venezuela.
What was it Teddy Roosevelt said “walk softly and carry a big stick”?
Obama walks softly but without a stick or a straight stance.
Maybe experience will help but I don’t think he is going to have enough time to learn. He’s already running around the world before the dust settles, confusing “big stick” with “wet noodle”.
Peter
April 20th, 2009
8:43 am
HA HA HA Dusty…..Bush raped the treasury, and got us into (2) Wars….thus we have NO BIG STICK !
I guess this crowd wants us totally Bankrupt, with more WAR !
Chris Broe
April 20th, 2009
8:47 am
All Obama does is read that bloomin’ book! Maybe we should have a book burning! Wooten may be quite correct here. Look what readin’ bloomin’ books did to Ringo Star!
The history of Pan American relationships is peppered with CIA assassinations, funding of armed insurgencies, and don’t forget the 700 plus Panamanian civilians we keeled when we caught Noriega.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 14, 2009, as Pan American Day and April 12 through 18 as Pan American Week. I urge the Governors of the 50 States, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the officials of other areas under the flag of the United States of America to honor these observances with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
Pan America Day! It’s not Groundhog Day, but it’s pretty cool.
Chris Broe
April 20th, 2009
8:55 am
Has it been 100 days yet?
Chris Broe
April 20th, 2009
8:56 am
I’d bet the farm that Wooten already has written his piece for the 100th day.
ProgressivePeach.com
April 20th, 2009
8:57 am
Jim and his ilk are fuming about Obama shaking Chavez’s hand. Shall we trot out the pictures of Bush kissing the Saudi prince? Or Nixon shaking Mao’s hand? Or better yet, Donald Rumsfeld grinning and shaking Sadaam’s hand? Jim, you need to move up your retirement date.
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
8:57 am
I don’t think you need any more evidence that proves President Teleprompter is a socialist.
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
8:59 am
Obamatopia
Does our president truly grasp why certain nations hate us — or does he really believe it’s all Bush’s fault?
by Victor Davis Hanson
One wonders whether President Obama, for all the soaring rhetoric, grasps why certain nations really do hate us. Does he think a Grozny, Darfur, Rwanda, Serbia, or Tibet happen in reaction to US global sinful conduct? Does he appreciate why hot spots like Cyprus, Taiwan, or Georgia, do not boil over—or under what conditions they might? Does he really believe that in the pre-Bush era we all got along (cf. his al Arabiya interview); then Bush’s strutting, unilateralism, and preemption, presto, caused anti-Americanism?
Take Iran. It wants to be the preeminent regional power in the Middle East, and win for the Persian Shiites the mantle of Islamic frontline leadership in the long war to destroy Israel. That requires oil revenue, sponsorship of terror, and nuclear weaponry.
Despite Bill Clinton’s past ramblings, it is not democratic; instead, prescreened, preapproved candidates are confirmed by plebiscites, and civil liberties are nonexistent as we know them. The history of Khomeinism is one of executing thousands of Shah-supporters, sending tens of thousands to their deaths in mass wave attacks in Iraq, and using surrogate Hezbollah and Shiite operatives to blow up Americans from Lebanon to Iraq. In other words, a democratic internationalist America stands in the way of their megalomaniac aspirations.
After the Carter humiliations, the Reagan disaster with Iran-Contra, the Clinton feeble attempts at appeasement, Americans gave up on the Khomeinists, and more or less hoped to distinguish the Iranian people from their theocracy, talk up democratic change, and contain the mullahs’ terrorist aspirations. We can do this adroitly or clumsily, but existential differences will remain nonetheless—until a change in ideology on their or our part. Either they reenter the family of nations, or we redefine the family of nations to include thugocracies.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obamatopia/
Susan
April 20th, 2009
9:01 am
I have no doubt in President Obama’s ability to be Commander in Chief.
There’s a time for diplomacy and there’s a time for forceful action.
The way he handled the standoff situation with the Somali pirates was a prime example. He’s deliberate, decisive and would not hesitate to take you out if jeopardizes the lives of the American people.
That’s a true Commande in Chief!
Reality Check
April 20th, 2009
9:07 am
CommunistAJC,
Do you realize that The Great Rondingo Reagan was the first POTUS to use the teleprompter?? But he must be excused… Early Onset was kicking his a*** about that time, so he did not know any better!
REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP
April 20th, 2009
9:08 am
JIMBO YOUR JUST MAD CAUSE HUGO CHAVEZ CALLED BUSH THE DEVIL.
READ MY NAME REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP.
1.OBAMA IS GOING TO MAKE IT SAFER FOR YOU DUMB REDNECKS TO TRAVEL.
2.REDNECKS LIKE JIMBO IS MAD BECAUSE THE WORLD WOULD RATHER DEAL WITH OBAMA.
3.PEACE IS BETTER THAN A WAR YOU CANNOT WIN
4.HOW BOUT YOU REDNECKS GO ENTER THE ARMY OR MARINES SO OBAMA CANT TAKE YOUR GUNS.
5.GO FIGHT THE TERRORIST THAT YOU FOOLS WERE COMPLAINING ABOUT IN 2000 AND 2004 WHEN BUSH WAS IN OFFICE.
6.FINALLY THE DIXIE REDNECKS ARE OUTNUMBERED
Churchill's MOM
April 20th, 2009
9:10 am
Why oh why do these leftist want to compare our next President to Jesse Jackson? Can’t they see the truth that she is America’s only hope?
Republicans have a big problem coming up: Sarah Palin.
How can a telegenic woman with a fervent following in the party, fundraising skills and a greater ability to fire up a Republican audience than any other GOP politician be such a liability? It’s not just because she’s unelectable as a presidential candidate.
Many leading Republicans and Democrats are, for one reason or another. The problem is, Palin doesn’t know she’s unelectable, and neither do her followers.
If she and her Palinistas have to find out this hard truth on the 2012 primary campaign trail, it will be bad news for the GOP.
It’s precisely what Democrats went through from 1983 to 1992, when the specter of Jesse Jackson hung over the presidential hopes of the party.
Like Palin, Jesse Jackson was the best crowd rouser in his party. No Democrat until Bill Clinton, with the possible exception of Mario Cuomo on his best night, could compete rhetorically with Jackson.
Lack of political experience wasn’t Jackson’s only barrier to the Oval Office. He’d embraced Fidel Castro in Havana and shouted “Viva Fidel!” He’d also kissed Yasser Arafat and said some explosive things over the years about Jews and Israel.
On top of all that, Jackson has still never explained his multiple stories about what happened the day Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. And his organizations always seemed to run into tax and financial problems that the media would investigate with glee.
Those things didn’t come up much in the Democratic primaries of ’84 and ’88 because every white Democrat in the race knew that to attack Jackson head-on risked losing the black vote.
It was impossible for a white politician to say what then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry articulated, rather cruelly: Jackson had never run anything but his mouth.
For the same reason, if Palin chooses to run in 2012, no Republican will be able to go negative on her without losing the right-wing Christian populists who flocked to her rallies in 2008.
Palin’s background isn’t nearly as problematic as Jackson’s, and she has, of course, been elected to public office. But Palin was widely perceived to be deficient in knowledge of national and international politics. Her inability to appear even minimally competent made her one of the rare vice presidential nominees to damage the ticket in November.
As I said during the campaign, John McCain’s most effective attack on Barack Obama was calling him inexperienced. But McCain’s choice of Palin, who seemed to have the foreign policy knowledge of a bowling alley waitress, made these attacks sound silly.
Worse, Palin’s vapidity, inexperience and hard-right social views drove many moderates and conservatives into neutrality or the Obama camp.
Some of my Republican friends hope she can forge a different public image. They believe that if she were to write a book on foreign policy or get linked to a think tank, all would be forgotten.
That’s not how media politics or public image works. It’s like hoping Bill Clinton will become a spokesman for marital fidelity or George W. Bush for eloquence.
And while Americans have had presidents with short résumés, some fringe political beliefs or questionable intellects, the potent combination makes Palin unelectable.
If Democrats really want to help their chances for 2012 and even 2016, they should quietly donate money to Palin’s political action committee.
By contrast, Republicans should hope that Palin quickly learns a lesson from the post-1988 Jackson. Few Democrats worked as hard or as effectively to build up Democratic registration and unity, laying the groundwork for every subsequent victory. Palin could easily step into that role.
So Palin has a positive future in the Republican Party if she wants it. But running for the top of the ticket of her party’s presidential nomination in 2012, she’s the Democrats’ dream. They win if she loses, and win bigger if she wins.
*****************PALIN-MCCAIN 2012*************
ProfFish
April 20th, 2009
9:16 am
May seem inconsequential? May seem idiotic to even mention. When you can’t even criticize without qualifying your comments, it’s time to find something substantive to talk about.
Mid-South Philosopher
April 20th, 2009
9:17 am
Hugo “Bozo” Chavez is a bully. You don’t deal with a bully by canoodling with him. You act civil, you be polite, but when he starts his bullying…you burst his nose…all over his face. Once that is done, if you do it right, you’ll be his kind of man..he’ll come around you with his hat in his hand.
“Barry” has the civility and the politeness down. ‘We shall see if he can handle the other part.
The Anti-Wooten
April 20th, 2009
9:19 am
The REAL reason that Jim and the rest of the Uber-Right are so upset about Chavez is something that’s unknown to most American’s. Recently, I had an extensive conversation with a friend originally from Venezuelan and he has a take on Chavez that we’ve not heard before. Under the governance of Chavez, the trains run on time, schools are funded, the roads have been repaired to a great degree, the average wage earner has seen a substantial increase in their wages and many other functions of good government. In other words, the average people in the country like him. Not everyone but certainly many think that he’d done a good job for his country.
Contrast that with the Georgia legislature who by passing such drivel as 861 are following the utterly failed tax policies of George W Bush that have led to so much of the destruction of our nation. Attaboy Goobers, you asked for it, you got it.
The Anti-Wooten
April 20th, 2009
9:22 am
Then along comes Mid South to perfectly illuminate my point, yes, by all means let us engage in some other was against a country that has not attacked us. In fact, through some low cost heating oil programs Chavez has done more for poor American’s than GWB did in 8 years in the WH. Heckuva job for the tired ol’ tight right white regime.
Ga Values
April 20th, 2009
9:26 am
Jim. please read Bob Barr’s column in today’s paper. This is what real Conservatives are like. I know it’s late in the game for you but you could try to be a conservative.
Californication
April 20th, 2009
9:26 am
Peter,
I want some of the chronic you are smoking. If Bush bankrupted us what is BO doing? He has spent more in 100 days than Bush did in 8 years. Put down the bong sober up and look at the facts. I know that is a tough think for a liberal but facts speak for them selves.
Peter
April 20th, 2009
9:30 am
Hate, Hate Hate….All Republican’s repeat…….Hate, Hate, Hate………
Now Don’t you feel better already ?
sd
April 20th, 2009
9:30 am
I haven’t read Chavez’ book, but anyone even remotely knowledgeable of South American history knows that Europe and later, the USA has acted immorally and at times criminally in South America.
How did Pinochet get power in Chile?
Noriega was a CIA Agent for pete’s sake. Thats not conspiracy talk either. Thats a fact.
Tom
April 20th, 2009
9:31 am
I’m sure Wootie and Dusty were just fine with GWB looking into Putin’s soul and liking what he saw.
Mid-South Philosopher
April 20th, 2009
9:32 am
To the Anti-Wooten,
I am not a fan of “Georgie” Bush by any means, as I am sure Dusty will be more than happy to tell you!
At the same time, I don’t need a pro-Marxian, dictator wanna be to explain the shortcomings of my country.
lardlike
April 20th, 2009
9:33 am
Nixon and Mao.
The Anti-Wooten
April 20th, 2009
9:35 am
Nice deflection Californication, by the way Red Hot Chili Peppers called, they’re pretty unhappy with a rightard using their song in furtherance of your cause.
Truth is short in supply today, Obama has not yet come close to crossing the spending threshhold that GWB foisted upon America. Bush’s 2nd war has never been factored into what he did to us.
Jackie
April 20th, 2009
9:36 am
The contention that President Obama has diminished the stature of the USA in places he has visited is breath-taking in and of itself.
I would submit that Dubya and has band has already lowered our standing throughout the world to near zero, therefore, NOTHING that is done in engaging other world leaders has to be a positive step forward.
The metaphor relative to carrying a “big stick” should be obvious. Did the Somali pirates think a “big stick” or “big foot” was used?
Substitute any word you want behind “big”, it still comes out the same. President Obama exercised his executive leadership with clarity and decisiveness.
Marc
April 20th, 2009
9:38 am
Hey Jim. There’s this thing call sovereignty. Believe it or not, Chavez, the Castro brothers, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong-Il are also the leaders of their countries thus meaning they ARE equals. Just because you don’t like their point of view doesn’t change that.
To give you a simple example, It’s like Obama is the CEO of Google and the Chavez is the CEO of Ask.com. Being the CEO of Ask.com is less prestigious and powerful, but he is still a CEO and respected as such.
Chris Broe
April 20th, 2009
9:39 am
21Leftist Venezuelan Polo Ponies Poisoned! Round up the usual suspects.
Peter
April 20th, 2009
9:39 am
Hate, Hate Hate….All Republican’s repeat…….Hate, Hate, Hate………
Now Don’t you feel better already ?
Sunday is for Church………..that gives Republican’s 6 days to hate !
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:42 am
General Motors is prepared to part with a controlling stake in
Opel/Vauxhall for nothing but a pledge to invest directly in a new
company formed from its European operations,
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
9:43 am
Reality Check, the difference between Reagan and Obama is the fact that Reagan helped turn Carters recession around AND end the Cold War. Reagan was a leader who believed in the individual. Obama Hussein wants government to control our lives. Reagan gave speeches with substance and built up America. Obama Hussein goes over seas to tear America down. Reagan is considered one of the 10 best presidents the US has ever known. Obama Hussein is another Jimmy Carter.
Van
April 20th, 2009
9:44 am
To Peter @ 8:33 am. The “Godfather” quote is exactly what I was going to say.
“Keep friends close and enemies closer !”
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
9:44 am
Peter, maybe you should look at your comrades, pal. How many of your comrades have trashed talked Palin and Wooten on this blog?
HATE HATE HATE! THAT’S ALL DEMOCRATS DO.
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:45 am
Polaroid won bankruptcy court approval to sell itself for $88 million
to a joint venture led by two liquidation firms, Gordon Brothers Brands
and Hilco Consumer Capital.
sd
April 20th, 2009
9:45 am
Americans hate self-reflection. Can’t stand it.
If any person should point out any immoral act of America, that person is not a patriot. Real Patriotism requires that all negative information, no matter how factual, should be purged from memory.
America is good, therefore anyone who disparages America is evil. It makes for a simple understanding of the world.
However, if you were one of the 100,000 people Pinochet imprisoned without trial or 200,000 that fled, you might point out on occassion that active CIA involvement led to his Coup success.
Peter
April 20th, 2009
9:45 am
Hey Californication…..Tell us about all the wonderful jobs created by the Bush Administration, or any jobs created for that matter…….Tell us about how he ran the country so well, we are now Strong and vital……..and we CAN that BIG STICK Dusty talked about !
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
9:46 am
Jackie, Muslims hated us WAY before Bush ever took office. Maybe you forgot about the first 4 attacks on Americans. Selective memory perhaps?
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
9:47 am
Peter, the DOW hit 14,000 while Bush was in office. Unemployment was lower than what it was when Cigar Clinton was in office. Bush inherited a recession and we were hit by 911. It’s funny how left wingers always seem to have amnesia when it comes to their party.
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:47 am
White House and Treasury Department officials
now say they can stretch what is left of the $700 billion financial
bailout fund further than they had expected a few months ago, simply by
converting the government’s existing loans to the nation’s 19 biggest
banks into common stock.
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:49 am
Behind Citigroup’s $1.6 billion net profit for the first quarter was
some fuzzy math,
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
9:49 am
Tom, Bush did a lot of stupid things and what you’ve mentioned is one of them.
Mac
April 20th, 2009
9:49 am
So, somebody hands you a book at a meeting and with the cameras rolling, your move is to hand it back, drop it, or maybe throw it at him? What hooey. Glad the president is a grownup and you are headed out to pasture.
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:50 am
American Sterling Bank of Sugar Creek, Mo., and the Great Basin Bank of
Nevada of Elko, Nev. were seized by regulators, bringing the total of
federally insured failed banks to 25.
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:51 am
The inquiry into corruption at the New York State pension fund started
simply enough. But now it has ballooned into a sprawling investigation
involving some of the most prominent players in New York’s political
and financial worlds.
CommunistAJC
April 20th, 2009
9:51 am
A World Of Trouble For Obama
By Jackson Diehl
New American presidents typically begin by behaving as if most of the world’s problems are the fault of their predecessors — and Barack Obama has been no exception. In his first three months he has quickly taken steps to correct the errors in George W. Bush’s foreign policy, as seen by Democrats. He has collected easy dividends from his base, U.S. allies in Europe and a global following for not being “unilateralist” or war-mongering or scornful of dialogue with enemies.
Now comes the interesting part: when it starts to become evident that Bush did not create rogue states, terrorist movements, Middle Eastern blood feuds or Russian belligerence — and that shake-ups in U.S. diplomacy, however enlightened, might not have much impact on them.
The first wake-up call has come from North Korea — a state that, according to established Democratic wisdom, would have given up its nuclear weapons years ago if it had not been labeled “evil” by Bush, denied bilateral talks with Washington and punished with sanctions. Stephen Bosworth, the administration’s new special envoy, duly tried to head off Pyongyang’s latest illegal missile test by promising bilateral negotiations and offering “incentives” for good behavior.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR2009041901994.html
Peter
April 20th, 2009
9:52 am
Hey CommunistAJC……
Where was the DOW when BUSH left office ?
Where was the economy when Bush left office ?
What was the deficit when Bush left office ?
Where were we on the (2) Wars by the time Bush left office?
Where was Bin Laden when Bush left office ?
Funny I guess we were doing so well, and must have forgotten ?
Big Bucks GOP
April 20th, 2009
9:52 am
Investors in the firm run by disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff have
filed 18 lawsuits against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance in an
effort to recoup $3.3 billion that its hedge fund group lost in the
scandal.
Jackie
April 20th, 2009
9:52 am
@CommunistAJC
Perhaps you should do more comprehensive research.
We have done more to hurt ourselves throughout the world and for a long period of time, whom do you think would not be more than upset with our policies and practices.
Just to give you a small tidbit, the Marines Corps song has the words “…from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…” We those words incorporated into the song because of what the Corps accomplished in those countries? How many times did the Corps invade those countries?
Since you mention attacks on Americans, are you including the bombing of the barracks in Lebanon?