BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON, BUT DON'T WANT
Posted on 07/25/2008 11:41:13 PM PDT by fightinJAG
WITH gestures that ranged from a wink to a sneer, most anyone you met here this week volunteered the view that Barack Obama’s visit to Europe caused unprecedented frenzy. But it’s been hard for me to find a European, aside from two Harvard-educated friends in Paris, who confessed to excitement — not just about the visit, but the prospect of an Obama presidency.
It is true that Der Spiegel, the German newsweekly, featured Mr. Obama on its cover, topped by the words “Germany Meets the Superstar” — but the cover was satire, and nasty satire at that. The editors managed to find the ugliest photograph of Mr. Obama ever taken. It caught the senator at a moment that might be exhaustion but looks like conceited smirking. When Der Spiegel featured Mr. Obama on its cover in March, the cover line was “The Messiah Factor.” Must one add that this, too, was not meant to be taken at face value?
Europeans will be as relieved as 72 percent of Americans to see the end of the Bush administration, but their attitudes toward the Democratic candidate are far from being the same as the ones he arouses at home. Mr. Obama makes Europeans uncomfortable.
In Germany, politicians in front of large, shouting crowds evoke images that nobody wants to see repeated. But genuine worries about demagoguery are not all that’s at issue. The mocking undertone that accompanies most descriptions of Mr. Obama in the European news media signifies a trans-Atlantic divide.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maybe the real story on how Europe is receiving the Obambi tour is very different from that told by the American LSM.
The article has a link to the Der Spiegel “superstar” cover with a really horrid photo of Obambi - he looks like the devil incarnate.
Pay close attention to the last few paragraphs.....
Pay VERY close attention.... :-(
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Ah, no. Quite the opposite: optimists believe good is stronger than evil, and will ultimately prevail; idealists sit around whining because life isn't perfect.
Germans are usually intelligent, and perhaps can recognize a farce when they see one.
That’s the one.
An interesting piece. The editorial writer tricks you. The first half of the piece speaks as to the Obama being unimpressive to the Europeans. Something spoken of by other reporters.
Only in the second half does the point of the editorial become clear. Quoting Ronald Reagan and George W Bush’s neocon advisors, “Old Europe” is too worn out and cynical to appreciate the greatness and hope Obama offers.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Yup. That’s it.
Oops, sorry. I meant to direct the comment “yup; that’s it” to Jeff Head.
The whole point of this piece is to protect Obama. The idea of Germans deciding who are next president will be, is grating to Joe six pack in the States. This article is meant to reassure him Obama is just a regular guy who the Germans don’t care for either.
BINGO !!
I was thinking that same thing. More stories are now coming out that the crowd was much smaller than the first reports claimed. Also the rock concert was the real reason the people were there. I think Obama was a curiosity for the people over there, and the truth is, he crashed their rock concert for a photo op.
As for the Germans, they are quite cynical about politicians making grandiose promises. They were scorched by Hitler and are still paying for it in reduced world esteem. The addition of 17 million communist-indoctrinated citizens in 1990 has severely damaged their economy. The notion of big government is now the plurality among the Germans. The only conservatives (relatively speaking) are mostly in Bavaria, the Rheinland and some parts of Hessen.
Everything is worse now than 1939-47, and worse now than at any time during the Cold War...... that’s what our ‘wise’ leftist twits want everyone to believe.
btw, why the HELL is it so great for socialists to celebrate the Berlin Airlift while disdaining and loathing the man who in our time stood fast to bring (potential for) freedom to 50+ millions in Iraq and Afghanistan???? Talk about Euro-centric biases, George W. Bush has far more in common with the best of Harry Truman than Obambi and his fans ever will.
I believe that feeling will turn into..."saudade" for the Bush administration in short order.
The likes of an Obama administration will make quick work of our nation with a socialist congress in control.
The likes of a McCain administration? Show me the Veep...
The big thing that the Germans and Obama share in common is their belief that Saddam should have been allowed to stay in power, or that the “insurgents” and Iranians should have been allowed to rule Iraq if Saddam couldn’t, or that the Iraqis don’t deserve to rule their own nation. This is an important point for them. The irony of the fact that Americans were the key to keeping Berlin free and are today keeping others free escapes them. Meanwhile these ingrates, naifs, utopian double-think dullards, panty waists, philistines, dilettantes and poltroons preach that Baghdad deserves abandonment as soon as possible so Iraq can live a life like Germany in the 1930’s - chaos ending under with a likelhood of a kooky dictator. Their unwillingness to consider the consequences of their ideas is completely lost on these self-proclaimed wiser-than-Bush men and women. The Left today and the fawning sycophants in the media who praise Obama are guilty of group “think” that aids the enemies of liberty and civilization. These world weary sophisticates sure have a tough time with the real world when it won’t conform to the vacuous gibberish of the poet Obama.
excellant, articulate post.
Where’s the Barf Alert?
YES.
This historical example, both of what happened when Germany was left to its own devices in the inter-war years and what happened to Germany when the U.S., after fighting a long and costly hot war, nevertheless stayed the course with an Army of Occupation (yes, many wear the AOC ribbon today) that stabilizes Europe even today.
Actually, I took the author as describing her observations of the German popular thought, not her own views.
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