About his trip. It comes on again five PM Central time on MSNBC. I didn't catch much the first go round, this is just a heads up
I posted this in another thread -- he was too evasive on questions related to the surge and its success -- he needs to get a better response. On the trip in general ~ IMO it was an absolute home run. When 200,000 people show up to see a presidential nominee speak it makes people proud to be American. This is an honor for our entire nation.
His response should be something like "I want to be more than the Commander and Chief of the surge." But you're right Cheetah, he looked tired.
Obama needs to be nailed about the success of the surge and give a direct answer. He and his staff have had ample time to hash out whatever best response they can come up with. His trip went as well as anyone could have dreamed of. IMO, it is a shame the way some are doing everything they can to tear him down about it. The world needs to clearly see another face of America that repudiates the last 7 1/2 sorry years of the Bush administration. Thanks for the notice pgabs. I've set my DVR.
Those pics are It would be nice to finally have a leader that the world respects...Even George Bush said he was jealous.
Whether Euros like him or not is not a qualification, if anything it's a red flag. Why do we need the adulation/approval of quasi-socialist states. Are we that insecure?
This bothers me because I would be just as happy to see a republican leader getting that kind of response -- it just so happens to be a dem this time around.
So you'd rather have the people of our Democratic allies hate us? So that when we need the help of those countries, they are less willing to help because they are Democracies and respond to their people? You think that's a GOOD thing? You think it's a good thing that virtually every country in the world that joined in the Iraq war had their governments kicked out and replaced by anti-war governments that began withdrawing troops, leaving more of the mess to the US? Wow. Just wow.
Oh I think we should do everything possible to convince our allies that support of our policies is in their interest. But our policy should not be based on the likelyhood of their support. You set the policy, then figure out how to convince your allies to support it, not the other way around.
I don't spend a second of my day worrying about whether people like me, certainly not complete strangers from other countries. I resent the notion that it should be a basis for electing leadership.
BTW McCain was horrible on This Week with George Stephanopoulos this morning. But of course, no one will be talking about that.
Except that when the success of the policy is dependent on their support, then it might just be a good idea to actually take into account whether they do support it and adjust your policy as needed.
Depends. Who are the guys burning the flag? Why do they hate America? Because of GWB or because of America?
Exactly!!! You get it! And you don't. The problem is your personal view about yourself has no connection to how the U.S. should view itself in the world. If you can't see the difference, then oh well. In the future, if you ever get a position of leadership where you need cooperation from people you have no direct control over, I promise it will become clear. If you are always someone who is accountable to no one but yourself, your current attitude should suffice.
There is a world of difference between wanting our allies to hate us and expressing that it should not be a requirement that we elect the person that they would choose. You can get along with somebody that you may not see totally eye to eye with. If we are going to use who the Europeans want as the criteria...I think that is called puppet government.
