When The Shoe Is Off The Other Foot
From Powerline:
One of the key arguments of Barack Obama's Presidential campaign was that he would improve America's image around the world. This idea was based on the false assumption that anti-Americanism was due to factors peculiar to the Bush administration, as opposed to the basic realities of America's role in the world and the hostility that many feel toward our values and interests. Thus, anyone foolish enough to believe that electing Obama would transform our international relationships must be disappointed.
Most recently, student protests have broken out in Indonesia against Obama's planned visit to the land of his youth. One might think that Indonesia, especially, would welcome Obama as a favorite son. But Muslims in the world's largest Muslim country don't see it that way. Here, protesters hurl shoes at a picture of Obama.
Ah yes, it's always all about Obama, or at least he and those who worship him think so. A shame reality doesn't cooperate.
Obama billed himself as the post-racial, post-partisan president, The One, the one man on Earth who could and would transcend the petty strictures of humanity to establish a worker's paradise. His mere presence would cause hostile regimes to bow down to him. His race would lower the seas, his intellect would heal the planet, his cool would inspire the masses. Unfortunately, he neglected to tell folks--though many recognized it anyway--that he intended, above all, to be the post-American president, the leader of the world. Unfortunately, the world doesn't want a leader, and certainly not Obama.
And so Obama has transcended the presidency, and does not stoop to merely representing that petty, non-special, horribly flawed, racist, sexist, you name it ist, messy conglomeration known as the United States of America. And therein lies his, and our, problem.
The POTUS is the elected representative of America, American's chief hired hand, the ranch foreman, not the CEO. We expect the POTUS to be a man of great character and determination, a man who will make the hard decisions and do the heavy lifting. His power to persuade comes from the sum and substance of the people he represents and from their values, character and determination to pay any price and bear any burden, as JFK put it, to ensure the survival and success of liberty around the world. Absent this motivation and backing, any man in the position of POTUS is truly nothing special and is in reality, a mere figurehead. When the President begins to think and act as though he is more important than the office, when he cares nothing for American tradition, for America's long fought for and hard won obligations and interests, and for our sacred pursuit of liberty, when he purposely insults our irreplacable allies and bows to and grovels before our implacable enemies, he becomes, well, he becomes...Barack Obama, community organizer, con man, race hustler.
For those who wish us ill, it is one thing to spit in the eye of the President of the United States. But to spit in the eye of The One? Every day and twice on Sunday. After all, what's the downside for a petty tyrant, a communist dictatorship or an apocalyptic Muslim lunatic? Will Obama threaten to "bear witness?" Will he threaten to "move toward meaningful sanctions?" Will he set yet another "we really mean it this time; no foolin, darn it, I'm serious!'" deadline?
Obama is a success at one thing: Continual self-aggrandizement. The rest of the world isn't playing along, and a rational man would have known that from the beginning. Leaders come and go, but nations have continuing interests and commitments. Obama is taking us on a tragic detour from history. We, and the world, will be fortunate indeed if the price we pay is not measured in millions of lives and the destruction of world security.
Reply to this
How does Obamas foreign policy differ to that of his predecessor? Maybe the Rules of Engagement have changed in this current Afghan battle compared to Falluja.
Reply to this