I guess this is the kind of smarter diplomacy, and “reengaging with the world” that we were promised in the campaign. Of course, we were promised a lot of things in the campaign.
[Update Sunday night]
More smart diplomacy, with Russia.
[Monday morning update]
Gee, just what we want in an American Secretary of State:
Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again “share the same values.”
“What you said mostly could have been said by a European,” he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an “I love Hillary” t-shirt.
I suspect that, even more than is usually the case, she’s going to represent the world to America, rather than the other way around.
[Bumped]
[Monday afternoon update]
Gift-giving advice from Barack Obama:
With my busy schedule of entertaining foreign dignitaries and celebrities at the White House, I know how important a well chosen gift can be. Two weeks ago, for example, we received a visit from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister brought a few housewarming gag gifts including a pen set made from a boat, a framed paper thing from another boat, and some old books by Churchill (not Ward, but that English guy). Obviously we wanted to return the nice gesture so I sent my interns out on a scavenger hunt for an appropriate present. They couldn’t find anything in the West Wing, but luckily Costco was open and was running a 25-for-the-price-of-10 clearance sale in the DVD department. You should have seen Mr. Brown light up when he opened that sack of classic titles like “Wizard of Oz” and “Baby Geniuses 2.” I like to think those DVDs helped cement our Anglo-American “special relationship” even if, as he mentioned to me, they probably wouldn’t work in his European player. Thinking quickly, I told the PM I would send him an American DVD player as soon as I earned enough cash-back points on my Costco card. Crisis averted, but that episode taught me a valuable lesson: always keep a stock of gifts handy in case some foreign poobah or supreme religious figure or failing industry pops by for coffee. As a result, I make sure the Oval Office closet is filled with pre-wrapped Sham-Wows and Snuggle blankets and trillion dollar bailout packages for whatever emergency might arise.
Why not? It makes as much sense as taking market advice from someone who doesn’t know what a P/E ratio is.
[Update late afternoon]
Here’s a completely plausible thesis on why the Obama administration dissed the UK:
The alliance that Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt crafted to win World War Two was more than just good strategy. They forged it in order to assert and defend an ideal which had fallen on hard times in the dark days of 1941, that of individual human liberty.
Originally born in Britain, this common ideal holds that human beings have a God-given natural right to arrange their lives as they see fit without interference from any authority, whether pope or king or government bureaucrat. The belief has always been America’s most precious historical legacy, and the rock on which our friendship with Great Britain is built.
It was that ideal which the Founding Fathers inherited from Britain, expressed as the rights of freeborn Englishmen. Our founders fought and nearly lost a war of independence against the British crown, and devised their own Constitution, to preserve the same ideal.
… Perhaps the president simply believes some other nation should replace Britain as our closest friend. (For a while, the Clinton administration meant to put Germany ahead of the UK.) Or perhaps Obama has a different view of the special relationship – one held by the likes of his onetime mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
These critics don’t see a legacy of freedom going back to Magna Carta. They see a historical procession of self-serving white males. And Churchill is not the man who singlehandedly stood up against Hitler and who warned us all about the Soviet Union’s iron curtain, but a white supremacist.
In this view (which also sees an America steeped in racism, colonialism and greed, rather than a nation dedicated to the proposition of liberty under law), there is no need to preserve any precious British-born legacy.
Including that fuddy-duddy English common law, and particularly contract law. After all, dead white guys came up with it. And that Churchill guy was on the wrong side in Kenya.
I wonder if Barack and Michelle Obama know who it was who freed the slaves? And who it was who originally sold them into slavery? I haven’t seen a lot of evidence of actual historical knowledge from either of them.
Another Telegraph article shows one thing pretty special.
Circuses facing shortage of tightrope walkers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4928087/Circuses-facing-shortage-of-tightrope-walkers.html
Hope the URL is not too long. But the article is worth it.
The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”
What can you expect he must have got out of the bed the wrong side?!
No doubt the Telegraph will entice the US to speak more of why Britian is nothing special.
The USA … where is that now?
Yep too long. Next time I will break it in two.
Do the Brits have a counterpart to Charlie Daniels?
“This sceptered isle may have stumbled
But it ain’t never fell
And if Obama don’t believe that
He can just go straight to…”
Ralphe, how was that story related to the current one?
Karl Hallowell Says:
“Ralphe, how was that story related to the current one?”
Not by much except it is political commentary, came from the Telegraph, and I found it special. Really I found it hilarious.
Where’s Jim?
So this is what the Democrats meant by ‘competence’? Yikes.
By the way, what is the count up to now of tax-cheats and/or lobbyists offered positions in the Obama administration?
Once again America has seen fit to put children in charge of the country. Once again someone is going to have to follow this disaster of a president and clean up the mess he makes. Tell me now, who honestly believed Obama was qualified or experienced enough to be president and what were you smoking at the time? Must’ve been some really good stuff.
Palin supposedly wasn’t qualified or experienced enough for Joe Biden’s job.
And at this point, Joe Biden might actually be an improvement. Maybe he and the cabinet will exercise their 25th Amendment Section 4 powers and put an end to our growing national nightmare.
I’m not surprised. As I said last November, Obama and the Chicago crew don’t really give a flying foo about foreign policy. It’s all just a distraction from the real business of rebuilding America in the image they want. That, actually, more than any principle or multiculti root-causes thingy is why he wants out of Iraq pronto. It costs money that could be so much better used, e.g. to strengthen ACORN or give inner city public school teaches a $100,000 starting salary.
It’s not really that they’ve thought hard about it, and think GB is really on a par with, say, Tuvulu or Zimbabwe or Bhutan, insofar as US foreign policy is concerns. It’s that they don’t think the exact nuance in Brown’s visit is such a big deal. They don’t understand why people — in particular the British — are worked up about it, and are expressing annoyance at people who think all this protocol crap is important to get right, when there are all these really important issues to get right, like how to jam universal health care down an unwilling nation’s throat, and how to get all these annoying flyover country cousin-boinking NASCAR rednecks to stop fussing about a little trillion dollar deficit put in place for their own stinkin’ good.
Where’s Jim?
Why in the world would you want to invoke him?
Must’ve been some really good stuff.
They were smoking Change. Which reminds me, I need a few billion dollar puff of that right now.
Mr. Pham has evolved well beyond the average commentator and has entered semi-pro pundit territory.
Just saying.
Just an aside, nothing to get excited about, but: Carl, in my experience, people from Illinois never use the expression “fly over country” in a derogatory way. You can imagine various ways to divide up the country, but even wealthy liberal Chicagoans living on the Gold Coast and the zillionaires living in Kenilworth don’t go for that one. I just want to help you fine tune your semi-pro punditry.
I have to say, as pessimistic as I was about Obama, even I didn’t think it would be this bad. My imagination failed me; who could have thought he would be so abominable in so many ways?
Where’s Jim?
“Why in the world would you want to invoke him?”
Dunno, seems he is remarkably silent on this matter. That could change. Guess I have a morbid curiousity as to the response.
Without making any comment on the overall story, I’d also just like to point out that Clinton gracefully recovered from the gaffe in Russia. Here’s an excerpt from the BBC’s story:
At a joint news conference after two hours of talks, both joked about the error.
“We reached an agreement on how ‘reset’ is spelled in both Russian and English – we have no differences between us any more,” Mr Lavrov said through an interpreter.
Mrs Clinton put it this way: “The minister corrected our word choice. But in a way, the word that was on the button turns out to be also true.
“We are resetting, and because we are resetting, the minister and I have an ‘overload’ of work.”
Bob, no, folks from Chicago would use the phrase “downstate” to mean the same thing. And, yes, I know that because I lived there, Illinois that is, downstate and in Hyde Park, Obama’s adopted home town. The degree of contempt felt for those not privileged to live in the Second City is nontrivial, and probably at least as much as New Yorkese feel for those in Joisey…
Anyway, when you’re a Semipro Pundit, union rules say you have to use language that is evocative first. Accuracy is a sort of secondary goal…
As for Mrs. Clinton’s faux pas: in all honesty, this one flabbergasts me. State without question has Russian experts who could have provided precisely the correct word; even the correct idiomatic expression (of which Russian has bazillions) for the correct region or ethnic grouping (of which the former USSR has bazillions).
Why didn’t they? That is the $10 million question. The only thing that comes to mind is some kind of last-minute chaos, where the thing wasn’t vetted by the State Department experts.
Or possibly some kind of interference from the Best and Brightest Twitter Generation on the White House staff, who thought whoa! I’ve got a cool idea for a little symbolism at the meeting! What? So what if it’s only 4 hours before the Secretary’s plane leaves? Geez, you old fogeys are just not used to how fast you can get stuff done with 3G net apps and all. What this, gramps!
Indeed, there’s a bit of a sense I get about this whole Obama operation that reminds me of the follies of the JFK Administration; the same dangerous combination of inexperience and contempt for experience. I hope they acquire some humility quickly enough to start learning.
Good thing we don’t have ICBMs on hair trigger anymore, huh? With those they could have destroyed the country in minutes, insstead of it taking months or years.
I’m feeling too mellow for any partisan defense, but here is an Illinois story which is the flipside to the contempt for downstate that you’re referring to: I was once driving back from Champaign-Urbana towards Chicago, and since I had made the same drive countless times, I got off the Interstate and went North on back roads through the corn fields. My father grew up in NYC but dreamed of corn fields, so we moved out to Illinois to live amongst them. He miscalculated: the suburbs quickly expanded westward and subdivisions replaced farms. So there I was driving down memory lane, and feeling pretty happy enjoying the open road when a state trooper pulled me over, and asked if I knew how fast I was going. I admitted I didn’t. He asked where I was going. I told him I was heading home. He looked the Chicago-area address on my license, and asked why I wasn’t on the the Interstate. I said I wanted to see more of my state than just the damn Interstate. He got a big grin on his face, told me to slow down, and let me go. So, it isn’t mutual contempt 24/7….
In general, you can do ok in downstate Illinois as a Democrat. It helps if you are in good graces with the NRA, but even that isn’t essential — moderates who usually lean toward either party are willing to support people of good character like the late Sen. Paul Simon (my hero), from the small downstate town of Troy, IL.
Bob –
I never attended the U of I but many of my high school buddies did. (My wife is an alum we only met later)
Taking IL 47 to Champaign-Urbana was always more fun than taking I-57.
I do support Illinois teams since the University of Chicago never offered much with regard to athletic fandom and it helps when I can cheer for the same team as my wife — although the Fighting Illini don’t often offer much to cheer about.
= = =
As for the main post, Rand is just venting his ODS.
Film at 11. Not much to see or comment on.
Rand is just venting his ODS.
Whatever fantasies get you through the day, Bill.
As another commenter pointed out, the people with real ODS are those who don’t see through him (or actually like the wreckage that he wants to make of the country).
Erm, Bob, that would generally be my experience with “downstate” folks, too. Generally (although not always, of course) they preserve the old-fashioned Midwest manners and courtesy. It was the Chicago contempt about which I was talking, and not even really all the burbs, Hyde Park in particular. You’d have to go a long way to find people more certain that if they had charge of the world, it would be a far better place.
Rand, the “completely plausible thesis” is utterly lacking in evidence, isn’t it? I’m quite willing to accept that the visit by the PM was handled poorly (at best), but why is there any reason to think that race has the slightest thing to do with it?
As for your contention that Obama shares a view that “sees an America steeped in racism, colonialism and greed, rather than a nation dedicated to the proposition of liberty under law”, look at what Obama has actually said on the subject. You’ll find that he sounds just like all other American Presidents. For example:
From the President’s inaugural speech: “”Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expediency’s sake.”
Rand, the “completely plausible thesis” is utterly lacking in evidence, isn’t it?
No, not at all.
As for your contention that Obama shares a view that “sees an America steeped in racism, colonialism and greed, rather than a nation dedicated to the proposition of liberty under law”, look at what Obama has actually said on the subject. You’ll find that he sounds just like all other American Presidents.
I’m actually more interested in what he says privately, when hanging out with people like Bill Ayers and Mike Klosky, than in inaugural speeches (for instance, in that videotape that the LA Times refused to show, or even provide a transcript of). I think that’s much more revealing of someone’s true views and character. And of course, we have Michelle’s thesis and her lack of pride in America until it looked likely that her husband would be nominated.
Why don’t you provide a plausible explanation of why the Churchill bust was returned, Bob?
I obviously don’t know what he says when he speaks in private.
I don’t know why he returned the bust, but I’ll provide my own explanation: he may have viewed it as a de facto gift to Bush, and he didn’t want stuff reminiscent of Bush as decoration.
Or, here’s another reason: maybe he prefers Americana. I think there is evidence (from his speeches) that Obama believes in American Exceptionalism, and that the UK, like much of the rest of the West, follows in our wake when it comes to voting rights and individual liberties. (And it is true: I’m an Anglophile, I collaborate with a British company, and after a during a summer trip to Europe, spending a few days in the UK in the middle was like a homecoming, but even I have to admit that many men didn’t get the right to vote in the UK until after WWI.) I would go picking through Obama’s various public pronouncements, but it certainly isn’t worth the time if you don’t care about what he says in public.
Anyway, I still don’t understand why you think there was any racial connection whatsoever to whatever screw-ups occurred during the visit by the PM. If simple incompetence is ruled out, I would next look deeper into the personal relationship between Brown and Obama.
I obviously don’t know what he says when he speaks in private.
And probably don’t want to know. And the LA Times wants to keep you ignorant.
Bob, do you think either of your pathetic potential reasons justification for insulting our closest overseas ally?
No, not at all. I think it a very bad idea to be rude. When you asked for Obama supporters to list what they are unhappy about, that was on my list. I hesitate to mention this, for fear of being a hypocrite, but I’ll say it: I would have shared my whole list with you, but I didn’t , and if you review the way the people who did share were treated, you can see why I didn’t. I really prefer politeness!
Do you think that “rude” is the president’s biggest character flaw? And do you consider it a significant one?
Bob, for me, it’s not that being rude to a major ally is a bad idea ethically speaking. It’s that it’s majorly stupid. Now, Obama and his team are anything but stupid. How do smart people do stupid things? Typically, by being disorganized, arrogant, in over their head and unwilling to learn. (What folks accused Bush of, ironically enough. ) This, more than anything else, gives me concern about Team Obama.
Here’s another item of concern. The Chinese are testing. They think they’ve maybe got this kid’s number, that they can play Khrushchev to JFK, play him for a newbie fool. We’ll see what happens. So far, Team Obama has issued a “protest.” Goodness! Maybe they’ll escalate to wagging their fingers at the Chinese next! Or a really stiff letter to the UN!
The AP article notes that the Chinese pulled a similar stunt in April 2001, just after GWB was inaugurated. What they don’t point out (this being the AP) is that the Chinese did not repeat that during GWB’s Presidency. Evidentally, having a reputation as a hot-headed cowboy — or, perhaps more to the point, as someone not so enthralled with his own brilliant soft speech that he forgets the part about carrying a big stick — can be useful.
Frankly, the thought that Team Obama pissed off the British alarms me much less than the thought that they might handle the Chinese with equal incompetent arrogance.
All the Illini at this site today…I also traveled Ill 47 to Shampoo Banana (C-U) in the early 70’s.
Obama is easy to understand. Given his ties to Kenya, and the Mau-Mau activities from 1952 to 1960, it was totally intentional on his part. He is still a teenager in thought, word and deed. I can understand not liking a conservative foreigner, such as Netanyahu, but even Bush recognized the unique circumstances of the UK with Blair. It was the reverse of the relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill, of course. Yet Obama couldn’t even respect another Socialist.
Actually, the gaffe was Gordon Brown’s. The pen-holder was made from the timbers of HMS Gannet, which was a Red Sea based anti-slavery ship, not an Atlantic one. This meant it was shutting down the slave trade from East Africa to Arabia, which was handled by the Luo tribe, Obama’s ancestors. When he talks about the British oppressing his ancestors, he’s undoubtedly talking about all that valuable property the Royal Navy stole from his great-great-grandfathers.
How insensitive of Brown!