Barack Obama’s New Best Friend
Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero is looking forward to (finally) getting a warm reception in Washington.
During his annual September pilgrimage to the shrines of global governance at the United Nations in New York, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero boasted that Spain’s per capita GDP has now surpassed that of Italy. “This depresses Berlusconi,” he joked of the Italian prime minister, adding that Spain was on target to overtake France “within three to four years.”
Considering Zapatero’s triumphalism, Spaniards are asking themselves why it has taken three humiliating weeks of begging and pleading to get their prime minister invited to a global financial summit in Washington on November 15.
The “Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy” is being organized by members of the G-7 to discuss the turmoil on world financial markets. Also invited to the meeting are the leaders of the industrialized and developing countries that belong to the G-20. Unfortunately for Zapatero, Spain, which is the world’s eighth-largest economy in terms of GDP (the World Bank ranks it eleventh in terms of purchasing power parity), is not a member of either of the two groups. What’s worse, U.S. President George W. Bush is hosting the meeting and Zapatero has been persona non grata in Washington since he unilaterally pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq in 2004.
Facing a mountain of criticism (and an avalanche of ridicule) at home, a visibly embarrassed Zapatero launched a diplomatic offensive unprecedented in the annals of modern Spanish history to ensure that Spain gets invited to the summit. Zapatero and his bumbling foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, pounded the pavement for weeks crying “We will be in Washington!” and pleading with anyone who would listen to intercede on Spain’s behalf. Countries like Argentina, Brazil and China were recruited for the cause and French President Nicolas Sarkozy even offered Zapatero one of the two seats that France had been offered at the meeting.
In the end, however, it was Bush who had the final say. And Bush, who has been vilified as the personification of evil by Zapatero and his anti-American Socialist acolytes for more than four years, decided to give the hapless Spanish prime minister a break. Zapatero will now be coming to Washington after all.
What does Zapatero hope to achieve with his newfound status as persona grata? He seems to want to bite the hand that feeds him. Like an Energizer Bunny that just keeps going and going, Zapatero has missed not a beat in reiterating his pathological dislike of American-style capitalism.
“Now it has been demonstrated” that “neo-liberal” ideology does not serve “either economically or socially,” Zapatero proclaimed. He has assured Spanish voters that he will be going to Washington to enact “changes in the order of global priorities,” to eradicate “poverty and hunger,” so that “peace and security, the fight against the violent” are the “fruit of a large multilateral concert in which the United Nations will have a central role.” It’s “time to change, to take sides with the planet” and “respect nature.”
Zapatero + Obama = White House Visit
Zapatero’s high-minded post-modern rhetoric brings to mind another would-be messiah. Indeed, the big news splattered across headlines all over Spain recently has been that, with the election victory of Barack Obama, Zapatero may now finally get his long-awaited invitation to the White House.
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Soeren Kern is Senior Analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.
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18 Comments
1. » Barack Obama’s New Best Friend White House On Best Political Blogs: News And Info On White House:[...] Obama’s New Best Friend Posted in November 13th, 2008 by in Uncategorized Barack Obama’s New Best Friend Persona non grata in the nation’s capital for years, Spain’s prime minister will [...]
Nov 13, 2008 - 12:57 am 2. Letters From A Tory:Don’t forget that McCain forgot that Zapatero was the Spanish Prime Minister – if memory serves me correctly, he thought Zapatero was from Central America.
http://www.lettersfromatory.com
Nov 13, 2008 - 6:42 am 3. JFM:If you look at the following photo you will know everything you need to know about Zapatero. Obama would be well advised in ignoring him.
Nov 13, 2008 - 8:38 am 4. Julie:“Don’t forget that McCain forgot that Zapatero was the Spanish Prime Minister – if memory serves me correctly, he thought Zapatero was from Central America.”
So what? Zapatero is a persona non grata in the U.S. McCain was probably confusing Zapatero with Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican rebel leader.
Don’t forget that Spaniards cravenly gave into terrorists after the Madrid train bombings by electing Zapatero, who promised to remove Spanish troops from Iraq – this from the country of El Cid and Cervantes (who heroically fought in the Battle of Lepanto)!
Nov 13, 2008 - 8:51 am 5. schnargley:Obama meeting with Zapatero will be a marvellous step in sending the right message to Al Qaeda and others: “We are sorry for offending Islam and for our atrocious acts, such as The Reconquista. We love you and want to be your best friends. We promise to behave in the future. “
Nov 13, 2008 - 9:07 am 6. Craig:He has assured Spanish voters that he will be going to Washington to enact “changes in the order of global priorities,” to eradicate “poverty and hunger,” so that “peace and security, the fight against the violent” are the “fruit of a large multilateral concert in which the United Nations will have a central role.”
Impressive. Eradicate world hunger and poverty in a loving multcutural fruity sort of way! Aww….shucks amigo…can I have an effin hug?
And all tied up in a neat bow by the United Nations? I am SO GLAD I haven’t eaten yet…I wouldn’t be able to hold it down with this delusional nonsense.
Nov 13, 2008 - 11:11 am 7. AWOL Civilization:A match made in heaven. Please see my article in American Thinker:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/obamas_foreign_policy_appeasem.html
Nov 13, 2008 - 11:25 am 8. Luke:Hopefully Zapatero brings BHO one of those funny little hats.
http://www.antiquehelper.com/auctionimages/27757t.jpg
Nov 13, 2008 - 3:58 pm 9. Spaniard American:Zapatero is the worst president Spain has ever had. A lot of people are losing their jobs in Spain and this useful idiot is has been begging to Sarko for a chair in the Washington meeting, when he doesn’t understand English.
Zapatero ignored in the NATO meeting… look for Merkel looking at him… was he sleeping?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOVlH3oAxgM
Nov 13, 2008 - 8:56 pm 10. The Historian:RADICAL POLITICIANS WILL DESTROY OBAMA
The far left in Congress is on track to ruin the Obama administration:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/radical-politicians-will-destroy-obama.html
Nov 13, 2008 - 9:07 pm 11. Preposteroso:Okay, McCain forgot that Zapatero was the Spanish Prime Minister, but, as is apparent from the photo posted by jfm above, Zapatero forgot that too. For telling comment on Zapatero see:
http://thethoughtsoffrit.blogspot.com/2008/08/self-obsessed-lowlife-career-terrorist.html
Nov 14, 2008 - 9:14 am 12. always right:McCain’s supposed not knowing Zapatero was debunked thoroughly. A few threads were devoted to it.
Apparently some people just don’t read.
Nov 14, 2008 - 9:45 am 13. Douglas Bogle:Never fear Obama is here.
JFM, I think this Zapatero, ( shoe maker ) is just the kind of man Obama hangs with.
No lapel pin, no hand over the heart, etc. etc.
They can sit next to each other and bash the US.
Never fear Obama is here.
Nov 14, 2008 - 1:17 pm 14. David W. Lincoln:Better relations with traditional allies is simply code for, “You were right, we were wrong” by the knuckle dragging second guessers of those
they demonize.
The likes of Zapatero is a reflection of what was
Nov 15, 2008 - 2:55 pm 15. Al Fin:conquered by the Muslim Hordes, not of what cleared them out of the Iberian Peninsula.
Zapatero is precisely the type of friend that Obama will cultivate, in addition to Hugo Chavez and leaders of Hamas. They can all remind Obama why he chose to enter public service–the great causes of justice, peace, and revolution.
Obama will focus all the resources of the US toward solving the problems of world poverty, hunger, and injustice. To begin the healing, he must choose the proper human sacrifices to appease the gods of social justice. If the first set of sacrifices fails to appease them, another, larger set of sacrificial humans must be chosen. And so on, until the gods of social justice have been appeased–or until no more humans remain to be sacriviced, whichever comes first.
It is a noble task. Obama will need the guidance of men such as Zapatero to see that it is carried out fully, promptly, and in a politically correct manner.
Nov 15, 2008 - 4:26 pm 16. Mongoose:Let Obama do so. The American people will come to detest it.
Conservatives should go out there and debunk this “standing in the world” nonsense.
I hope we can have him out there apologizing for the USA. It will come back on the Democrats big time.
Nov 15, 2008 - 8:24 pm 17. vivo:13. Douglas Bogle:
“No lapel pin, no hand over the heart, etc. etc.”
Totally unnecessary symbolism.
What’s next? The Hitlerian or Mussolini salute? The Michael Jackson grab?
Nov 17, 2008 - 1:11 am 18. Monica:You clearly dislike Zapatero, ok. But you clearly dislike Spain, so what are you doing there. Return to wherever you came from, since is so much better
a Spaniard that was born in the land of Don Quijote
Sep 27, 2009 - 2:58 pm