Email This to a Friend
Obama’s Cairo Address: Did It Live Up To the Hype?
A good speech that could have been braver. (See also Ron Radosh on how conservatives should view Obama's address.)
President Obama journeyed to Cairo on Thursday to change the world — or at least get the process of changing the world started. Such ambition in presidents is nothing new. We tend to imbue our chief executives with a combination of omnipotence and civic sainthood, seeing in them the living embodiment of our values and the standard bearer of our history and heritage.
Such a burden is carried differently by each man who has held the office, making their way through time with only their ambition and a supreme belief in their own abilities to accompany them. All have tried to make their mark on history, even as they ride history’s whirlwind, being tossed mercilessly about as if on a bucking bronco until their time is up and they can slide off, or are thrown unceremoniously into the dirt.
President Obama decided to tempt the fates, grab history by the tail, and take on a task from which Hercules himself would have shied away: changing the perception of how the United States is viewed in the Muslim world.
The fact that this perception has been fed by the controlled press of the holy terrors who rule much of the Islamic world, as well as the holy men who seek to control their flocks through fear of the “crusader” and hate for the infidel, only made Obama’s job of breaking through the ignorance and isolation that is the sad lot of most of the world’s Muslims that much harder.
Even if you have a very low opinion of President Obama, I don’t see how you can honestly criticize him for trying to alter the dynamic that currently exists between Islam and the West. And keeping in mind that we are at war with a large segment of Islam (much larger than the president would have ever dared say in public), the rhetorical tightrope that Obama was forced to walk between unequivocally condemning the extremists while attempting to placate the sensibilities and feelings of hypersensitive Muslims who believe they have been stereotyped as mad bombers was worthy of anything Barnum and Bailey could have produced.
There are many on both the left and right who are criticizing the president for making a speech that didn’t accomplish anything or actually played into the hands of our enemies. While I found plenty that was objectionable in the speech, I think that kind of criticism misses the point.
As the president said, no one speech was going to change things. Rather, it was the fact that speech was made in the first place — and where it was given — that impacted the consciousness of the Muslim world. Right now, they’re not listening to us — even with our Lightworker president in office. Announcing to the world that the president of the United States was going to address the Muslim world and do it in a Muslim country at least got the planet’s attention.
Every journey begins with a first step. And if the minimum President Obama could accomplish was to get the Muslim world to pause in their headlong dash toward history’s gasoline dump with a stick of dynamite in their mouth and a fistful of lit matches while forcing them to listen to a few (too few, as it turned out) truths about Islam and the threat of extremists, then the president accomplished as much as could be expected.
Did the substance of the speech matter? As a gauge to our president’s thinking — how he sees the world and America’s place in it — it most certainly did. The address gave us a glimpse of the president’s strategic sense. In places, it struck me as naive, such as his belief that the Palestinians can be convinced that “violence is a dead end” and that by following the path of the American civil rights movement they can see their aspirations fulfilled.
The fact that Palestinians have as much to fear from each other as they do the Israelis was left unsaid and only the barest mention was made that Hamas does not even recognize Israel’s right to exist. On such specifics people live or die, and if our president believes that the Palestinians only need a Martin Luther King figure to lead them nonviolently to peace and happiness, he will be terribly disappointed.
The president demonstrated a similar naivete about Iran and his belief that any country — including Iran — “should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” History has shown that once the nuclear enrichment genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to prevent a country from building a bomb if they so desire.
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Rick Moran is PJM Chicago editor; his own blog is Right Wing Nut House.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
73 Comments
1. Bad Karma:It lived up to the typical Barry notion of everyone sacrificing to meet his needs with a dash of naivity and pandering.
Jun 5, 2009 - 12:04 am 2. Confused in Virginia:Thank you for your assessment of “the” speech. I think that this speech could be considered good if he were running for president of one of the Islamic states; however, for a president of the United States to deliver a speech on foreign soil and apologize to those that enable, train, and harbor people intent on inflicting pain and sorrow on the American people, not to mention wanting the U.S. and Israel to be wiped off the map (the people formerly known as terrorists), is not only insulting to the people whom he claims to represent, it is also cowardly and dangerous.
I think it is rediculous and highly insulting that not only did he apologize for the actions of the U.S., he has recently made it very clear that he thinks that Americans need to learn more about Islam and be more sympathetic to those poor Muslims. Those unfortunate souls whose only crime has been being poor and misunderstood. Yes, they did kill A LOT of Americans, but they were forced to do so by those evil Americans. Why, oh why did those ignorant, wickedl Americans just refuse to see that there is but one true God (Allah), whose word was brought to the world by the Prophet Mohammed (peace be with him). If only those wicked Americans had listened, then he would have had an easier time taking over the U.S. and merging it with the countries of his ancestors, his heritage, and his faith.
It’s rather telling that although we are told that we have to learn about Islam, they are not told that they have to learn about Christianity. But then again, we ynow find out that we are one of the world’s greatest Muslim countries.
It’s time for our elected leaders to pay attention and do their sword duty to defend and protect the Constitution against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.” In this case, they can kill two birds with one stone. He is talking like an enemy of the U.S., and he is foreign and domestic. And, if our elected public servants don’t do their duty, we must elect people that will.
Jun 5, 2009 - 1:05 am 3. progressoverpeace:Obama’s Cairo Address: Did It Live Up To the Hype?
Does he ever? LOL.
It was awful. Weak and whiny, full of falsehoods and silliness, with the only real threat directed at Israel. Cowardice, incarnate.
Jun 5, 2009 - 1:54 am 4. Obama’s Cairo Address: Did It Live Up To the Hype? | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century:[...] this link: Obama’s Cairo Address: Did It Live Up To the Hype? This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Pajamas Media. You can follow any responses to this [...]
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:28 am 5. Boris:If you believe, like most commenters here, that all Muslims should be waterboarded, then you won’t like the speech. But then, who really cares what such people think?
Jun 5, 2009 - 3:23 am 6. Terry Gain:This is the sort of typical soft headed contradictory nonsense I’ve come to expect form Moran.
Obama’s speech in defence of Islam failed to acknowledge that the Islamists find justification for their conduct in the founding documents of Islam. Instead he spreads lies about the middle east being colonized by the United States and being a victim of the cold war. As if they didn’t choose sides.
If the U.S. Constitution required every American to wage on every non-republican would the U.S. ever be at peace? There will be no peace with Islam until Islam reforms. Islam is waging war across the globe with infidels and Obama’s solution to that is to say he will not tolerate criticism of Islam. How is the cause of freedom advanced by such dhimminitude (or is it the imposition of more Islamism)?
A man who’s very quick to criticize his own country will not hear one word of criticism for a religion/political system that has mastered the art of intolerance and denies basic human rights to citizens of counries where it governs. How does this make the world a better and safer place?
Obama lacked the courage to stand up for the civil rights of people living in Islamic countries. Does he even care that Muslim governments deny their citizens the basic civil rights we take for granted? Why does his cynical realpolitik about life in Muslim countries garner praise?
What did he offer reformers in those countries but the back of his hand? Since 2005 Iraqis have waged war agaisnt the Islamist who invaded their country. What dod he offer them except to mouth the stupid moronic Democratic talking-point-lie that the form of government they had overwhelmingly chosen – when given a choice – was imposd upon them.
Obama’s speech does nothing for the cause of peace. It is delusional to think this is going to have any positive impact on Islamists. All he has done is send a clear message to Islamists that they have nothing to fear from him and to reformers in Muslim countries that they are on their own.
Jun 5, 2009 - 3:23 am 7. Terry Gain:Andrew McCarthy gets what Rick Moran doesn’t get.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTBkYjRmMzI4MmI3NTRkMzIwYzU0NDhkNzk2NTBlZmU=
Jun 5, 2009 - 3:49 am 8. JHM dba ''Dawntreader":“The Dawn of a New Age”
11 Jumádae th-Thání 1430 [1]
“Even if you have a very low opinion of President Obama, I don’t see how you can honestly criticize him for trying to alter the dynamic that currently exists between Islam and the West.”
___
Well, well, Mr. Bones! Are the cowpokers and the Hyperzionistical crowd go’n’ta fall out over it intramurally, then?
And if they do, are we on that account to award Barák Husáyn XLIV any additional points? Assuming — as surely one must assume — that he was not *deliberately* attempting to practice _divide et impera_ on Kiddie Konservatism? [2]
More immediately, does not Neocomrade R. Moran, my quotee, invite us to entertain a very low opinion of Neocomrade R. Moran? Taking him at his word–as we have resolved to do with everybody wingnuttical (or otherwise political, for that matter) until proven to be liars or cynics–Neocomrade R. Moran really and truly DOES NOT SEE why any of his own neocomrades might wish to cherish and enhance änd aggravate “the dynamic that currently exists between Islam and the” militant extremist Republican Party.
Blind as a moonbat is Neocomrade R. Moran.
In theory I suppose a taker could take the scribble to mean that Neocomrade R. Moran does see what _jihád_ careerists (&c. &c.) are up to, but wishes that they were more dishonest about it. Though not very edifyin’, that would make sense. Alas! the sort of sense it would make must be far indeed above this neocomrade’s paygrade. Furthermore, that sort of sense would be cynical, which we just re-resolved not to accuse anybody of without lots and lots of probable cause and causal probativity.
It is no business of ours, Mr. Bones, to point out to a Neocomrade R. Moran the error of his ways, but let’s do it anyway, shall we? It shouldn’t take long.
What he ought to do, obviously, is look at who else declined to criticize: the New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/opinion/05fri1.html
No big surprise there, perhaps, but how about
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090534.html
M. Gideon de Levy, a sort of peace-crazed Fifth Columnist inside the Tel Avîv statelet? (Anyway, the alien gentlebeing is a first-columnist for _Ha’Aretz_.) M. de Levy goes hog-wild, if one may permit oneself that expression in a Jewish Statist connection:
“Only the Israeli analysts tried to diminish the speech’s importance (’not terrible’), to spread fear (’he mentioned the Holocaust and the Nakba in a single breath’), or were insulted on our behalf (’he did not mention our right to the land as promised in the Bible’). All these were redundant and unnecessary. Obama emerged Thursday as a true friend of Israel. (…) [He became] the bearer of promise in Cairo. Indeed, there was promise in Cairo, of THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE, (…) sensational messages, headlines whose significance cannot be exaggerated (!…) This is the thinking of a great leader, who walked with wisdom and sensitivity….”
(Golly. Even Mr. Robert Gibbs ought to be satisfied with *that* level of barf inducement!)
I should guess that M. de Levy is ten to one hundred times better and brighter than a Neocomrade R. Moran and knows pretty well what he is doing when he does it. After all, THE SPEECH OF SPEECHES, so glossed, really ought to be advantageous to M. de Levy’s political factionette as it can never (so glossed) be of much use to militant extremism here in the _Heimatland Gottes_.
On the other hand, M. de Levy’s factionette is very -ette indeed. M. de Nétanyahou and Gospodín von Lieberman have their problems, THE SPEECH perhaps among them, but they do not need to worry about bein’ filibustered down by the likes of M. Gideon de Levy. Being far better and much brighter, the oddball realizes this himself, as I conclude from his bottom line:
“But why waste words? Israeli news shows still opened Thursday with the Dudu Topaz [3] story; that is what really interests Israelis. Never mind Obama; Israel has its own concerns.”
Happy days.
___
[1] Being the former 5 June 2009.
[2] Should we madly assume the contrary, Prince von Bismarck and Kissinger of H*rv*rd and even the late General as-Sadát would be unfit to tie Obama’s real-political shoelaces. (But that is ridiculous, except of course in the H*rv*rd case.)
[3] Nor me either, Mr. Bones! It is some silly TV thing:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3726045,00.html
Jun 5, 2009 - 3:55 am 9. mehere:Reading somewhat a inaccurate historical view from a teleprompter, interspersed with efforts at pandering to those who already have a very clear idea of the state of hostilities between Islam and the Sates (and the west too, by extension) does not constitute – no matter how much the Democrats wish it – any sort of “leadership”
Jun 5, 2009 - 4:12 am 10. Terry Gain:Accepting for the sake of argument that Obama is not a Muslim (except, clearly, at heart) what are we to make of Obama’s statement that he considers it part of [his] responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.
What of the truthful stereotype that Islam is intolerant of other religions? Is he supposed to ignore that or lie about it?
Why is it the duty of a non-Muslim to defend against negative stereotypes of Islam?
What of the negative stereotypes of America? It seems his duty in that respect is to spread them as in the United States imposed democracy on Iraqis.
Jun 5, 2009 - 4:26 am 11. Tony R:Ah, I don’t think the speech was too bad as there is a limit to how many home truths you tell to people who despise your country, especially in their own backyard!!
Epic and historic? Nah, but it’ll do more good than harm I suspect.
My personal favourite part of the speech was this bit:
“I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day.”
That’ll have upset the “9/11 truther” imbeciles no end which can only be a good thing.
Jun 5, 2009 - 4:56 am 12. Ed Wallis:I, for one, was NOT impressed with the speech.
Weak bla blas mostly, accented with some common sense hardly anyone in the Middle East will heed, dressed in pretty-sounding words.
I was more impressed with The Regensburg Lecture :
http://www.amazon.com/Regensburg-Lecture-James-V-Schall/dp/1587316951/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244203808&sr=1-1
Jun 5, 2009 - 5:10 am 13. Paul -Indiana:Obama gave his usual speach.
Jun 5, 2009 - 5:16 am 14. Ran:Did it live up to what hype, exactly? There are two worlds here: Those who pay attention to the state-slave media, and those who ignore all-hype all-the-time. Not a few of us refuse to get cable entertainment, and trogs such as we don’t own a TV… so we avoided the hype.
In the realm of news analysis PJTV is preferable to anything broadcast and cable have to offer.
Did catch some of the [continuing campaign] speeches. Who writes Barry’s addresses? They sound naive, they’re replete with errors. They’re embarrassingly silly. They don’t resonate with statesmanship, they evoke cringes. Dan Riehl said it beautifully: Obama’s Ich Bin Ein Muslim Speech. Ouch.
Jun 5, 2009 - 5:44 am 15. Fred Beloit:Ran, you have described Hussein’s speeches as being something like SBS. The first S is from the word sophomoric. This is not surprising as his speech writer is still rather dreamy from his recent passage through puberty.
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:08 am 16. Right Wing Nut House » OBAMA’S CAIRO ADDRESS: DID IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?:[...] latest column is up at PJ Media and it is receiving the usual love and respect of commenters [...]
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:09 am 17. Bilgeman:Mr. Moran:
“That was the trouble with the speech overall.”
No…the trouble with with the speech was the fantastic presumptuousness of a temporary head of state addressing an entire religion.
I’m frankly agog at the b@lls on this guy.
Does he think Muslims are going to cotton to his quoting their Koran at them any more than Catholics did at his Notre Dame speech?
Right after his Notre Dame speechifyin’ and just before his Cairo preachifyin’, on the same day, the pre-eminent practicioner of Partial Birth Abortions is murdered and America suffers it’s first fatal Islamist terrorist attack since 9/11.(That was the Little Rock Army Recruiting Station murder, for those who may have already forgotten it).
Does anyone have eyes to see and ears to hear?
Just coincidence, right?
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:21 am 18. sheesh:Masterful speech. The most compelling and distinct message on the nature/resolution of the conflict in the Middle East given by any president, period.
He showed tremendous courage in stating America’s greatness and her responsibility . . . reconfirmed our ties with Israel . . . supported and challenged Israel and the Palestinians . . . the first president to use the word “Palestine” . . . the first to acknowledge our role in overthrowing the sovereign government of Iran in 1953 . . . decried those who would deny the Holocaust or suggest that 9/11 was anything other than the act of the violent cowards of al-Quaida . . . spoke to the rights of women, religious freedom, the right to self-governance.
I know folks here don’t like the idea, but Obama brought a whole new level of insight, honesty and commitment to the Middle East debate. He established the concept of values over policy in a way that helps the world see possibility and mutual benefit where before they only saw only relentless conflict.
Meanwhile, Hannity is hosting guests who post names, pictures and home addresses of abortion doctors and their family members. Hey, we all gotta contribute somehow.
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:26 am 19. savage24:I always thought that algebra came from the Greeks and the magnetic compass came from the Chinese, but then I’m not history scholar. He talks of his father being Muslim,but during the compaign he said his father was agnostic. What are we supposed to believe. He has done enough apologizing to last a lifetime. This guy produces more BS then should be allowed.
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:43 am 20. JFM:Savage 24
The word Algebra is an Arabic word but Algebra by itself is much older: Sumerians had already solved the second degree equation nearly two thousand years before Arab invasions.
However Arab Mulsim contribution to science is much smaller than we are told be it for real discoveries (either transmsission from India or China or made by dhimmis under Muslim rule) or transmission of Greek science where the Constantinople and Western Europe abbeys way dwarfes the Bagadad and Cordoba way.
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:57 am 21. Middleman:Considering the child-like sensitivity of people in the Middle East, the speech was about as good as you could get it before they start whining about not being understood and being done wrong.
Jun 5, 2009 - 7:16 am 22. Ran:Hey Fred… that fist ‘S’ could derive from “solipsism.”
;-]
Jun 5, 2009 - 7:21 am 23. Bohemond:“transmission of Greek science where the Constantinople and Western Europe abbeys way dwarfes the Bagadad and Cordoba way.”
Not exactly true. One of the greatest troves of classical writings came from the libraries of Spain as the Reconquista reclaimed it. These were (nearly) all Arabic translations, which accounts for the Arabic terminology (for example, the major star-names we still use derive from the Arabic translation of Ptolemy).
Nonetheless, this *was* classical learning. The Arab claims to have ‘invented’ the advances they acquired from the Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, Hindus and above all the Greeks is of course propaganda (repeated, naturally, by the President of One of the Largest Muslim Nations.)
Jun 5, 2009 - 7:29 am 24. ReConUSMC:Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo is one of the most bizarre orations ever made by a U.S. president, not a foreign policy statement but rather something invented by Obama, an international campaign speech, as if his main goal was to obtain votes in the next Egyptian primary.
That approach defined Obama’s basic themes: Islam’s great. America is good. We’re sorry. Be moderate (not that you haven’t always been that way). Let’s be friends.
Here, Obama followed the idea that if you want someone to like you agree with almost everything he says. Obama also gave, albeit with some minor variations, the speech that the leader of a Third World Muslim country might give, justifying it in advance by claiming America is a big Muslim country, after all.
Of course, the speech had tremendous—though temporary—appeal combined with its counterproductive strategic impact. It will make him more popular. It may well make America somewhat less unpopular. But its effect on Middle East issues and U.S. interests is another matter entirely.
The first problem is that Obama said many things factually quite untrue, some ridiculously so. Pages would be required to list all these inaccuracies. The interesting question is whether Obama consciously lied or really believes it. I’d prefer him to be lying, because if he’s that ignorant then America and the world is in very deep trouble.
If he really believes Islam’s social role is so perfect, radical Islamists are a tiny minority, Palestinians have suffered hugely through no fault of their own, and so on, then he’s living in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, we are not. The collision between reality and dream is going to be a terrible one.
The second problem is the speech’s unnecessarily extreme one-sidedness. Obama portrays the West as the guilty party. Despite a reference to September 11—even that presented as an American misdeed, unfair dislike of Islam resulting—he gave not a single example of Islamist or Muslim responsibility for anything wrong in the world.
Obama could easily have made the same points in a balanced way: you’ve made mistakes; we’ve made mistakes. You’ve done things to us; we’ve done things to you. And having established that I respect you, let me tell you how Americans feel and what’s needed.
But that’s not how he chose to do it. So afraid was Obama of giving offense—and thus not maximizing his popularity-at-all–costs mission—he did the political equivalent of scoring an own-goal. President Bill Clinton said, “I feel your pain.” In effect, Obama declared, “We’re your pain.”
So if Muslims are always the innocent victims, isn’t Usama bin Ladin and others correct in saying that all the violence and terrorism to date has been just a “defensive Jihad” against external aggression and thus justifiable? Why should anything change simply because Obama has “admitted” this and asked to start over again?
When he cited examples of oppression, Obama listed only Bosnia (where he didn’t even mention the U.S. role in helping Muslims), along with Israel, and also the Muslim-on-Muslim violence in Darfur. He didn’t mention terrorist violence and mistreatement of non-Muslims by Muslims in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Sudan, the Gaza Strip, against Israel, Europe or even Egypt itself.
This is a hallmark of the kind of thinking dominating much contemporary Western thought extending something that works in their own societies– where self-criticism, apology, and unilateral concessions really can lead to the other side forgiving and compromising–to places where it doesn’t work.
In the Middle East if you say you’re to blame, that communicates to the other side that their cause is right and they’re entitled to everything it wants. If you apologize, you’re weak. Sure, some relatively Westernized urban liberals will take what Obama said that way, I doubt whether radical states and political forces, as well as the masses, will do so.
The main ingredient in the Obama speech was flattery. There is a bumper sticker that says: Don’t apologize. Your friends don’t need to hear it and your enemies don’t care.
Obama’s situation might be described as: Don’t grovel. It scares the hell out of your friends and convinces your enemies you owe them big time.
As a result, the mainstream in the region will say, “We were right all the time. Obama admitted it!” While more extreme radicals say, “We’ve won and America’s surrendering.”
But if Obama, as it appears, is running to be the region’s favorite politician, he’ll find he—not to mention America’s allies–has to give up many more things to win that dubious honor.
Third, Obama undermined the existing states. True, to Obama’s credit, he did talk about reform, democracy, and equal rights for women. Yet the speech suggests to listeners is: democracy plus Islam equals solution. If Islam is so perfect and has such a great record—except for a tiny minority of extremists—why shouldn’t it rule? And since the extremists are presumably al-Qaida, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians in the audience must have found a lot to applaud.
How will this go over with the rulers Obama wants as allies?
Finally, Obama played into the stereotype that Israel is the central political issue in the region. Others, of course, are happy to find the usual scapegoat. An Associated Press headline reads, “Obama’s Islam Success Depends on Israel.” Is the entire “Muslim World” just waiting for Israel to stop building a few thousand apartment units a year before deciding that America is great, reform is needed, and moderation wise.
Obama’s phrases were carefully crafted. He called on Palestinians to stop violence, show their competence in administration, and accept a two-state solution, living in peace alongside Israel. Hamas was commanded to be moderate. Yet he in no way seemed to condition Palestinians getting a state on their record. His administration may think this way but he didn’t make that clear.
Middle Eastern ears won’t hear this aspect–which is part of the reason they may cheer the speech—in the way Washington policymakers intend. Inasmuch as the United States now has more credibility for them it’s because they hope it will just force Israel to give without them having to do much. When this doesn’t happen, anger will set in, intensified by the fact that the president “said” the Palestinians are in the right and should have a state right away.
Everything specific concerning Israel’s needs and demands–an end to incitement, security for Israel, end of terrorism, resettlement of refugees in Palestine—weren’t there. While Israel was specifically said to violate previous agreements on the construction within settlements issue—an assertion that’s flat-out wrong—there was no hint that the Palestinians had done so.
I can’t shake the image of Obama as the new kid in school, just moved into the neighborhood, fearful of bullies, who says anything to ingratiate himself and is ready to turn over his lunch money.
There’s a famous line in “Citizen Kane” where one characters says that it’s very easy to make a lot of money….If all you want to do is make a lot of money. It’s also easy to make a lot of popularity, if that’s all one wants to do.
An American president has to do more, a lot more.
Jun 5, 2009 - 7:59 am 25. ehunter:They LOVED OBAMA IN MALI
And went out and cut off the head of Ed Dyer the
Jun 5, 2009 - 8:08 am 26. Eric Florack:BBC correspondent/hostage to celebrate the new
Muslim-Western Civ relationship.
Of itself, perhaps, or perhaps not.
Seems to me that question comes down to what we’re changing from and to. By nesessity, this involes questions like: Is betterment of the perception possible, while serving American interests, and the interests of the remainder of the world outside the middle east? Can we improve that perception without giving up who WE are? (At it’s extreme, is there anything shy of becoming a calephate that will improve that perception?)
If we actually listen to what they’re saying over there, and we oserve their actions, the answer is a decided ‘no’.
Jun 5, 2009 - 8:35 am 27. Sebastian Shaw:President Obama believes his own hype; in other words, he thinks his voice can perform magic when he reads of his teleprompters. I found this speech to be a cruel harbinger for Israel since Obama is open for terrorists & wanting to give Iran nuclear power for “peaceful purposes.” He is either a fool or naive about these matters.
Jun 5, 2009 - 8:40 am 28. Rick Moran:“Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo is one of the most bizarre orations ever made by a U.S. president, not a foreign policy statement but rather something invented by Obama, an international campaign speech, as if his main goal was to obtain votes in the next Egyptian primary.” (Barry Rubin)
http://www.gloria-center.org/Gloria/2009/06/speaking-flattery-to-power.html
Jeez, #24. You are the dumbest plagiarizer in history. Lifting another’s work in total and trying to pass it off as your own is stupid anyway. But when you try to steal a well known Israeli expert’s stuff, you win the prize for being the idiot plagiarizer of the month.
The tip off was that you’ve commented here before and I know you weren’t that bright – and certainly not that good of a writer.
Jun 5, 2009 - 8:47 am 29. Meryl:So when the Islamic Jihadist terrorists successfully attack the United States again, will the language describing suggest that it’s just an internal family squabble since “we are all Islam” now?
And apparently King Fraud is giving us a break in letting us even sit at the Muslim table, since we’ve behaved so badly over the years.
The Muslims are his audience. Americans are no longer relevant since he has gotten what he wanted from them: the Oval Office and the power that goes with it.
As long as our elected leaders don’t care to enforce and protect the Constitution of the United States of America, he’s a dangerously power hungry, lying, unAmerican racist and that’s all he is.
I’ve recently seen posts saying, “Hey! As long as we have the Constitution, we’ll be fine!” Not if no one’s referencing it, protecting it and MAKING USE OF IT.
The Chinese Constitution actually includes a guarantee of freedom of religion. So please don’t pretend that the existence of the paper is enough to protect us. It’s not. And the United States is going down unless he is removed from office.
Jun 5, 2009 - 9:23 am 30. Delia:“But then again, we ynow find out that we are one of the world’s greatest Muslim countries.”
Typo alert. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who makes ‘em.
Rick, B.S. [Barry Soetoro] is a fraud, liar, keeper of secrets and people bought his cheap Car salesman speeches. Speaking of which? Hey, he IS a car salesman now! Fancy that eh?
We as Americans are up agains something we’ve never had to fight before. When the first dirty bomb hits [and I fear it will on HIS watch], DohBama will be clueless and offer more sorry @ssed apologies.
Not good.
Jun 5, 2009 - 9:26 am 31. Bob in VA:He mentioned 1200 mosques in the U.S. Why didn’t he chastise Muslim countries for willfully restricting the construction of churches, temples, pagodas et al in their countries????
Jun 5, 2009 - 9:46 am 32. ked5:17. Bilgeman:
Right after his Notre Dame speechifyin’ and just before his Cairo preachifyin’, on the same day, the pre-eminent practicioner of Partial Birth Abortions is murdered and America suffers it’s first fatal Islamist terrorist attack since 9/11.(That was the Little Rock Army Recruiting Station murder, for those who may have already forgotten it).
~~~
It wasn’t the first since 9/11. In July 2006, a Muslim (the press did it’s best to HIDE that he was muslim, but it did come out. The local press treated him as a wacko, denying his true motivations.) forced (by holding a gun to a 14 year old girl’s head) his way into a LOCKED Jewish Center in Seattle, and started shooting. One woman was murdered and a number of women were shot, including a pregnant woman. In his OWN words to his victims, “I’m only doing this for a ’statement’” and “because I’m a muslim”.
it was treated as a hate crime instead of terrorism.
Jun 5, 2009 - 9:49 am 33. Paul of Alexandria:A good analysis of the speech may be found at Jihad Watch. It looks at the speech with an understanding of Islam and what the Quran actually says.
One of the scariest things is that either Obama is speaking as a Muslim or he – not to mention his speechwriter – is totally ignorant of what it says and the religious/cultural context. For instance:
Jun 5, 2009 - 10:07 am 34. ked5:29. Meryl:
Americans are no longer relevant since he has gotten what he wanted from them: the Oval Office and the power that goes with it.
~~~~
and the paaarrrtaaaay’s.
Jun 5, 2009 - 10:30 am 35. Delia:34. ked5:
“and the parrrtaaaay’s.”
Oh, c’mon Ked! That’s what he ’signed on’ for and ‘campaigned’ for. He wanted the ‘jet-setting’, all worshipping, all bowing life. He certainly had no intention of ‘inheriting’ the economic ‘crisis’ which he has used so well to his ‘advantage’. Nooooo. Muslims coming home to roost.
Yup.
Jun 5, 2009 - 10:37 am 36. ked5:35. Delia:
34. ked5:
“and the parrrtaaaay’s.”
Oh, c’mon Ked! That’s what he ’signed on’ for and ‘campaigned’ for. He wanted the ‘jet-setting’, all worshipping, all bowing life. He certainly had no intention of ‘inheriting’ the economic ‘crisis’ which he has used so well to his ‘advantage’. Nooooo. Muslims coming home to roost.
Yup.
~~~~
Yup. Now he can have the private 747, private five star chef with unlimited menu, hoards of servants to do his bidding. Gotta keep up the standard of living against the other world-wide petty dictators (did you see the picture of Kim Il Jung’s private compound?). his own voters are now irrelevant.
I have no sympathy for Rall – or any bambi voter screwed by the current economic downturns. There is something poetic in that Geithner can’t sell his house, even for less than he paid for it.
as for the “crises”, well, he does have a motto of “never let a good crises go to waste”. (or to quote Operation Petticoat “in confusion there is profit”.) and if crises are that profitable, that is a great incentive to create them. best way to take over a business, he does want to be the dictator-in-chief you know. now that he’s made such good progress on the US, he can start on the rest of the world.
and yeah, I too think it goes back to his muslim beliefs.
Jun 5, 2009 - 10:56 am 37. Войска ПВО:..as usual, Delia nails it!
Jun 5, 2009 - 10:58 am 38. eurabitopian:So Barry thinks that learning about Islam will make infidels more trusting and tolerant.
Well, long before 9/11, I learned about Islam (and all the other major religions), it’s ideology, history and culture. The funny thing is that understanding Islam had exactly the opposite affect on me.
I suspect that actually it’s Barry who knows nothing on the subject. Like many non-Arabic speaking Muslims, he’s probably never read the Koran, Hadith or Suna and merely believes what his Imam (Jeremiah Wright) tells him.
Jun 5, 2009 - 11:00 am 39. Terry Gain:Jeez, #24. You are the dumbest plagiarizer in history.
Moran, please smarten up and refrain from taking the name of the Lord in vain. The plagiarized article is so good it’s unfortunate you didn’t read it before you posted your dumb post.
Jun 5, 2009 - 11:15 am 40. JFM:Bohemond says:
Not exactly true. One of the greatest troves of classical writings came from the libraries of Spain as the Reconquista reclaimed it. These were (nearly) all Arabic translations, which accounts for the Arabic terminology (for example, the major star-names we still use derive from the Arabic translation of Ptolemy).
Some fify years before any translation had begun at Cordoba or Sevilla, Jacobo of Venice and others wre translating greek texts full spped at Mont Saint Michel Abbey. Constant contrcts betwsen Constinople and West Europe had been taking well before Carlomagnus. And translmations made ditrectly from text to Latin couln’t be but far better than those from the Arab way involving Greek -> Arabic (a langauage with completely diffrent semantics and where vocaals are not written) -> Latin. In fact may of them went Grek -> Syriac -> Arabic -> Latin.
It is true that for religious reasons Arabs were interested in Astronomy/Astrology (Astrology was invented in Sumeria, nowadays Irak), but for philosphy, maths, medicine Arab transmission was either unimportant (ie minor texts) or, in the casxe of gynecology, unexistant
Jun 5, 2009 - 11:47 am 41. Rick Moran:Anyone who thinks “Jeez” is taking the name of the lord in vain has some serious issues with reality.
As for the piece, how do you think I knew it was plagiarized? Are you saying I didn’t read Dr. Rubin’s article but knew it was plagiarism by osmosis or something?
Jeez…
Jun 5, 2009 - 11:50 am 42. Typos_R_us:I figured it out about 5 minutes into his speech.
The Usurper is still running for office, Not sure what office and I suspect he isn’t either. Somebody needs to tell him they counted the votes and he had the most, he can quit running and start governing. If he knows how.
What I fear is that he is a one trick pony in a three ring circus.
All he knows how to do is campaign, so that is what he does. I guess Axel-Rod, Emmanual and Ayers will run the country. If that doesn’t send chills down your spine, you are braver ( or less sagacious) then I.
It does make me wonder if all the dead democrats that voted for him are spinning in their graves, or if the one’s that voted twice are doubly disappointed?
If he is running for President of the Earth, I have news. He will never beat out Clinton.
I might be reading to much into this and what we are seeing is the age old political ploy of taking a foreign jaunt when the wheels are falling off back home.
Even with the books cooked to well done, Unemployment is at 9.8%. The real number is closer to 12%. It is only going to get worse as all those seasonal workers can’t find work because the unemployed don’t take vacations. Not to mention the fresh grads who will be beating the drop outs for the burger flipping jobs.
Less jobs means less payroll taxes, which means less money for our elected officials to steal ( excuse me…..earmark). Can’t have that, can we? So the ‘elected ones’ will have to print more money. That will mean inflation, which means those still employed will NEED an SUV to hold enough Hundred Dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread.
Of course, that will push up the price of gas again. Then you will need a trailer behind your SUV to load in the money you need to buy a tank of gas to get to the store for your loaf of bread. Credit card? What if the bank goes under? Then you are stuck, since the gas station will know before you do. Ever tried to push an SUV? Worse then a Pirus.
Well, you wanted change. Now you got it.
Jun 5, 2009 - 11:59 am 43. Ms. Attitude:Obama reminds me of King Julien in Madagascar. Seriously!
“Shh! We’re hiding. Be quiet everyone. That includes me. Shh! Who’s making that noise? Oh, it’s me again… “
Jun 5, 2009 - 12:27 pm 44. Terry Gain:Anyone who thinks “Jeez” is taking the name of the lord in vain has some serious issues with reality.
As for the piece, how do you think I knew it was plagiarized? Are you saying I didn’t read Dr. Rubin’s article but knew it was plagiarism by osmosis or something?
Jeez
What do you think Jeez is short for?
As for your question I assumed you googled the first line of the article when it occurred to you, as you said:
The tip off was that you’ve commented here before and I know you weren’t that bright – and certainly not that good of a writer.
when what you meant was you had read Rubin’s article, though it really didn’t penetrate.
The fact you read Rubin’s very good analysis before treating us to your naive piffle makes it even worse. Are you trying to get a date with Kathleen Parker?
Jun 5, 2009 - 12:46 pm 45. Sherab Zangpo:This speech is undoubtedly good for those who hate America as much as the radicals do.
Islamic “extremists” are waging a world war against Freedom and the failure to question the link between these “extremists” and islam in general is an “omission” that will be paid all over the world for the next decades and will be paid in blood.
But I wrote “omission” in quotes because we have clearly observed in the last eight years that the commie radicals plan to use islam’s attack against Freedom as a crowbar to decisively weaken America and consequently become able to subvert the free-market economy and Freedom in general.
Whoever ignores the two statements above shows a deep ignorance of the geo-strategic problems, ignorance that cannot be considered “naive”: it is either suicidal or in bad faith.
To all this can only be added that the commies’ “plan” to use islam against America and then subvert a weakened America is destined to failure because islam doesn’t take prisoners, the commies will be wiped off (them, and their friends and the “powers that be”) by the islamic totalitarians, without a problem.
Many obscure forces have played this dangerous game in Europe and in the next few decades we will be able to observe what will happen to the idiots who hated the Western World so much that they opened the doors to the islamists.
The delusion of being able to control and use islam is probably the last idiocy of the commies (and of many other obscure forces) in history, and it risks to end history for all of us, by getting the world stuck into an unending dark age.
Great speech indeed, directly out of hell.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Jun 5, 2009 - 1:01 pm 46. ReConUSMC:28. Rick Moran:
“Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo is one of the most bizarre orations ever made by a U.S. president, not a foreign policy statement but rather something invented by Obama, an international campaign speech, as if his main goal was to obtain votes in the next Egyptian primary.” (Barry Rubin)
http://www.gloria-center.org/Gloria/2009/06/speaking-flattery-to-power.html
Jeez, #24. You are the dumbest plagiarizer in history. Lifting another’s work in total and trying to pass it off as your own is stupid anyway. But when you try to steal a well known Israeli expert’s stuff, you win the prize for being the idiot plagiarizer of the month.
The tip off was that you’ve commented here before and I know you weren’t that bright – and certainly not that good of a writer.____________
You JERK I was not trying to pass it off as my own words !
Jun 5, 2009 - 1:35 pm 47. Rick Moran:If I has I would have used his name !!!!!!!! Duh !!!!!!!
I see several people on this sight use many different names …….. ! it was posted on the AT where you posted your STUFF .
Rick your about as Original as is Bill Clinton ……. Your not a Top Conservative JOURNALIST …. you just can’t work as a a leftist !
You fool no one !
#46
“You JERK I was not trying to pass it off as my own words !
If I has I would have used his name !!!!!!!! Duh !!!!!!!”
Let us all sit back and marvel at the wonder of this. I have no words to respond to it. Maybe you guys can help me out.
Perhaps a recap will suffice:
1. You post an entire article written by someone else.
2. You give no attribution whatsoever – no link, no comment that the writing is not yours, no mention of the author’s name – nothing.
3. But, if I follow your “logic,” because you DIDN’T attribute the article to Dr. Rubin, you are not a plagiarizer and I am a dummy.
Got it.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:11 pm 48. Confused in Virginia:Delia, #30 – thanks for the typo alert. What I meant to say is “. . . we now find out . . .” Here’s one for you: “We as Americans are up agains something weve never had to fight before. ” You’re right, it is good to know that I’m not the only one who makes them.
I also agree with you that we will be attacked with a dirty bomb, and it will be on Obama’s watch.
This Indonesian Muslim never wanted the job of President, he only wanted the perks. I can’t recall any other President seeing the job as a 9-5 job, like this one does. We are in the middle of the second worst financial crisis in current history, and rather than working on a solution, this charlatan spends his time hanging out with his Chicago friends in the White House. He also spends who knows how much in Secret Service resources to go out on “dates” with his wife.
Now that he has taken over GM, he wants to dictate what kind of cars they can make, and he wants to force the American people to drive a certain type of vehicle, while he rides around in a motorcade of large SUV’s. Do as I say and not as I do?
I have a family of seven people. An SUV is the only vehicle that can accomodate all of us comfortably. Should we be punished now for having a large family? I didn’t realize that we had a policy similar to China’s one child per family policy. Of course, that could be next from our foreign Muslim dictator.
As you can see, I am angry. And the BIG question now is, where are our elected public servants in all this? Why has NO ONE (Republican or Democrat) stepped up to challenge the actions of this dictator? As someone said in an earlier post, our Constitution does us no good if there is no one to protect and defend it. Did our men and women in the military fight and die protecting something that will be obsolete in a couple of years?
We cannot allow this to continue without fighting for our God-given rights. We must let the people in Congress know that either they step up to protect our rights, or we WILL find someone who will.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:20 pm 49. Sherab Zangpo:And here is the opinion of Oliver North on the speech.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32161
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:34 pm 50. Typos_R_us:Recondo, go easy on Rick. He went in the tank for the Usurper last Spring. Now he is seeing the change everyone here warned him about.
Plus remember, if ALL the MSM types follow the party line as handed out by Baghdad er…. DC Bob there is no need for more then one. Maybe two so DC Bob can claim we have a choice. “Do you want Six or Half a Dozen”?
Rick is no doubt worried about making the cut when America goes down to one news outlet. Department of Information. So he has to firmly straddle both sides of the fence. That involves a certain amount of physical discomfort and leaves one with a high-pitched, squeaky voice.
Nevertheless, it just might position Rick for employment after the paper media goes down the tube.
Remember serious depressions start slow and build fast.
The great depression started in ‘29 but didn’t peak until ‘34-’36. I expect this one to be about the same. Like the make work programs of the great Depression, today’s make work programs will slow the rate of increase of unemployment, but they don’t create wealth. So when the make work projects are over, unemployment shoots up and inflation from printing money to pretend to pay those pretending to work kills any hope for those still employed.
No change here, this cycle has been ran thru several times.
On a positive note, the quickest cure for a depression is a war. Maybe we can bump up the economy by playing cowboys and mooslims for a while. The Only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:36 pm 51. Sherab Zangpo:UN Watchdog finds man-made uranium in Syria.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525233,00.html
This teaches us that we must get better informed about islam…
The president especially.
He should get A LOT more informed.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:38 pm 52. sheesh:46 . . . 47 . . . Marvel-worthy indeed! Actually, I’ve grown accustomed to this particular style of explanation around here. It ranks right up there with, “I know you are but what am I?” and “If it had been a Republican who did that . . . ” and “Did I mention I’m in Mensa?”
They all attempt the same thing . . . prop up intellectual dishonesty.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:38 pm 53. ReConUSMC:To Rick Moran : Your light weight , Trying to insult me is about like Colin Powell trying to demean Dick Cheney and Rush Limbough as nuts ! I moved the article over from AT as I said ! I Simply pasted and then Copied it . No big deal ….. I’m a Kick Butt ReCon Marine with Steel for Balls .not Pick undies like you and am not all the lying Leftist Journalist out there !
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:39 pm 54. Sherab Zangpo:Compared to Hall a Famers , Thomas Sowell , Charles Krauthammer , Victor D, Hanson , Roger Kimball
real Consertive thinkers your a Water Boy in Training .
One also suspects your skin is about as thick as is Nancy Pelosi OBAMA’S Narcissism !
And for (further) BETTER INFORMATION about islam, we could regularly read
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com
Here are the last numbers.
It must be anti-islamic prejudice of course.
Weekly Jihad Report
May 23 – May 29
Jihad Attacks:
35
Dead Bodies:
167
Critically Injured:
628
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:42 pm 55. Delia:48. Confused in Virginia,
The hilarity in my ‘typo vs typo’ alert thing was that I thought part of your post was actually Rick Moran’s! I keed you not. I seriously thought that in my half-awake state this morning. lmao. Having a laptop in your bed in the morning is a dangerous thing. *cough*
Great points btw. I hope I didn’t come off as pompous because I’m always making typos [spelling/syntax errors] that glare at me afterwards. Firefox is supposed to have a built in spellcheck feature now but I’m just too beholden to Opera.
Dirty bombs? Yaknow…the idea of a ‘bomb shelter’ is not that kooky of a thought any more.
Jun 5, 2009 - 2:48 pm 56. Meryl:Heard a point made today by someone whose name I didn’t catch, that King Fraud never did want to govern–he wants to rule.
Fits.
Jun 5, 2009 - 3:02 pm 57. sheesh:53 Sam, Sam, Sam . . . calm down. Bass bitin? Bet they are.
Jun 5, 2009 - 3:54 pm 58. Sebastian Shaw:“All he [President Obama] knows how to do is campaign…”–Typos-R-Us
You have nailed the essence of Obama in this one sentence; he has no executive experience. Therefore, he cannot delegate leadership since he is void of any leadership skills. Being a leader is not reading speeches & testing polls for answers. President Obama will come to learn this fact in the following 3 years of his term as his Utopian dream becomes our nightmare. I hope the other folks wake up. They will when they become part of the unemployed…
Jun 5, 2009 - 4:04 pm 59. Yish:ReConUSMC prattled, “You JERK I was not trying to pass it off as my own words !”
You didn’t attribute either a name, link, or any other indication that an excerpt was written by someone else. Own up to your mistake little man.
“If I has I would have used his name !!!!!!!! Duh !!!!!!!”
Let me get this straight, putting this statement in the context of the previous one, you are basically suggesting, if you were to pass the entire article as your own, you would have used his name! So, according to your inverted logic, since you did “not” use his name, you committed no plagiarism? Brilliant butter troll.
“I see several people on this sight [sic] use many different names
And that very fact, although entirely irrelevant, should give you the legitimacy to post others’ work as your own? Cognitive dissonance or imaginative absurdity? Who knows.
“ …….. [Z] ……. [G] …. [N]”
Are you trying to communicate on the Internet via the Morse code?
“you just can’t work as a a leftist ! You fool no one !”
So he should work as a rightist? We just got us a “garble” on this forum.
Jun 5, 2009 - 4:54 pm 60. Ms. Attitude:55. Delia:
Where I work and live would be one big hole in the ground! We wer are on the “leaked” map. We might have some warning…..”First comes saturday, then comes sunday” is a well known sentence in the Middle East meaning: “First we take care of the Jews (who pray on saturday) then we will take care of Christians, the “sunday people”..
Jun 5, 2009 - 5:50 pm 61. Penny:http://www.pierrerehov.com/fcstcs.htm
The Arabs know Obama is their man. They meet privately and discuss the carving up of America. Obama is just premature when he states America is the largest muslim nation. If he has his way, it will be. Last fall while campaigning, he spoke of the 57 states, refering to the Islamic Republic states. After saying 57 states, he paused and went on to say the 58 states meaning he will force the USA into a muslim nation whether Americans want that or not. He is also bringing muslims into our country by the tens of thousands every month he’s been in office.
In today’s Wall Street Journal Amir Taheri states, “Mr. Obama is perceived by many Arabs as someone who is preparing America for a strategic sellout to the Islamic Republic.” I, too, beleive that’s where he is headed. Can no one stop him?
Jun 5, 2009 - 6:21 pm 62. sheesh:Mizz Attitood: “Leaked map?” . . . Was it smeared with yellow cake from Nigeria? Did it come from a guy named “Curveball?” Did it come in the shape of a mushroom cloud? Was it “pretty much confirmed” that it was genuine?
Jun 5, 2009 - 8:00 pm 63. Roark:If this speech is considered “good” then America’s moral character and integrity has been relegated to crap.
Jun 5, 2009 - 8:27 pm 64. Confused in Virginia:Delia – think nothing of it. I type all my comments on a cell phone, so I’m surprised there haven’t been more typos. I appreciate you pointing that out to me. I would never think of you as pompous. I don’t know who Rick Moran is, so I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.
Thank you for your compliment about the points I have brought up. I have learned quite a bit from you since I started posting here. Thank you.
Jun 6, 2009 - 1:35 am 65. Dave Surls:‘If this speech is considered “good”…’
It’s good if you want to hear a bunch of boilerplate anti-American, anti-Western propaganda along with the usual touchy-feely, “can’t we all just get along” nonsense you usually hear from the ever-deluded left.
Obama is an idiot, his speech was hogwash, and abasing ourselves in front of cheering Muslims ain’t going to accomplish doodly.
Jun 6, 2009 - 6:59 am 66. SteveB/Colorado:#48 Confused in Virginia: “I can’t recall any other President seeing the job as a 9-5 job.” President Reagan took a lot of time off. He was also known for falling asleep in Cabinet meetings.
#49 Sherab Zangbo: you referred us to a column by Oliver North. Among other criticisms of Obama, Ollie offered the following: “Mr. Bin Laden ‘gets it;’ Mr. Obama doesn’t.”
Earlier today, it was reported that the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, praised Obama’s speech and referred to it as a “signal achievement.” Let’s see. Who has more credibility here? An accomplished U.S. senator, foreign policy specialist, and Rhodes scholar (Lugar). Or a convicted felon who got his convictions tossed out on appeal due to technicalities (good ‘ol Ollie).
#53 ReConUSMC: please use spell-check or just calm down before you write. You have so many typos that it’s hard to figure out what you’re saying.
#63 Roark: “If this speech is considered ‘good,’ then America’s moral character and integrity has been reduced to crap.” See my response above.
Jun 6, 2009 - 7:38 am 67. HRPKathy:Ugly and inept analysis. Obama isn’t president of the world (although he thinks he is) he is supposed to defend and protect American interests. If that was Obama being an American standard bearer, I only have two words: Epic fail.
Jun 6, 2009 - 8:33 am 68. ReConUSMC:TO 66. SteveB/Colorado:
Jun 6, 2009 - 9:39 am 69. Ms. Attitude:#53 ReConUSMC: please use spell-check or just calm down before you write. You have so many typos that it’s hard to figure out what you’re saying.
-________________________________
You use spell check with your Finger .I wish you could do that with your Minimalist of Brains and complete Lack of any Common sense your are horribly missing . You were probably brain washed by Ward Churchill at University of Colorado no doubt .
I’ll remind you Carter spelled Perfectly and had a 161 IQ !
And was Wide Awake …. Enough said ! I’ll take Reagan any day over Carter even asleep ! Duh !
62. sheesh:
Well, sheesh for brains, I didn’t need the leaked map to know these things.
Here are some instructions for you:
1) tilt your head to the left
2) hit your head on the right side
3) let some of the sheesh you have for brains fall out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/03/us-nuclear-obama
Jun 6, 2009 - 9:49 am 70. USGlo:This is a classic emotionally charged reaction by the radical right when they encounter a piece that does not entirely adhere to their sleight-of-mind ideology – smear, smear and don’t bother to examine the world from different angle. Place your head against a concrete wall and press.
Jun 6, 2009 - 2:23 pm 71. CapitalistforChange:Once again the critics insist on playing “checkers” when the game is now “chess”. First: There’s no equivalency between Obama and recent POTUS when it comes to speaking to a Muslim audience. For all of the talk about “exceptionalism”, Conservatives fail to see that it apply’s to Politics. Americans DID elect a man who has a diverse background with exposure to Islam. In fact, his background (politically) is EXCEPTIONAL for this task and for this audience. At best, the critics are resigned to debating areas where he “could have been stronger”…At worse, they try to deconstruct facts to minimize ANY concepts of “Muslim” in harmony with “America”. Obama can and should be criticized for some of his forays into Capitalism. It’s when the critics take on an American President who accepts a challenge that he’s uniquely qualified for; where they risk losing credibility….Sorry but Moran’s praise could have been for forthright and less ideologically based. This was not a “policy” speech, yet the criticism spends too much time digging in the weeds of policy and historical facts. This approach is particularly disappointing since Moran went sooo far to justifty the weak “Bush did it too” argument…Finally.. for all the talk about the background for the speech not being of “historical” timber; let it be known that the “background” that mattered here, was embodied (in deed and biography) by the speaker who delivered the message. Bobby Kennedy delivered a Democratic Primary speech in Indianapolis on the day the MLK was killed. The “lighting” was horrible. The camera angle made him look like he was standing in a closet while talking AND it was speech that he did not plan to deliver. It was also one of the best speeches in American political history…No. This was Obama’s finest speech. That is because, this is PRECISELY the speech that Americans elected him to deliver. “Exceptionalism” was present and accounted for.
Jun 6, 2009 - 3:55 pm 72. GClarke:Obama is engaged in a permanent campaign? I don’t think so. I see him as an employee who, in exchange for the right to spend as much money on himself as he wants, has agreed to follow whatever instructions he is given. Maybe he really agrees with the instructions given or, so far, he has no real problem with them. The interesting thing will be when he gets instructions he starts to have second thoughts about. Either he’s too far in so he’ll never risk any challenge, or he may wake up someday and realize his bosses aren’t really Americans and don’t really have the interests of the US at heart. But even if there is nothing he can do, what we can do is keep spreading the word. Obama is bought and paid for by people who are not our friends. Follow the dots and it will be clear.
Jun 6, 2009 - 5:50 pm 73. ReConUSMC:To 71. CapitalistforChange:
You Sound Like a alive radical Socialist Saul Alinsky … deceive .. deceive .
Capitalism with Moslems is about about Like a Gay commitment to not going to the Bath House for a Romp in the HAY with many even though they are both Committed . You Fool no one .
A free and open society is an ongoing conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises of Capitalism .
Jun 6, 2009 - 6:26 pmObama main mentor …….. Saul Alinsky Quote