Love triangle: “The people of India deeply love you,” Singh had once told Bush, now headed to Delhi. Obama has been quoted as saying he considers India and Singh part of his family, but was that before he knew of Bush’s visit?
Posted on 10/29/2009 10:32:32 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Bush dinner tastes sour for Obama
- PMO decision to entertain former President causes hurt in Washington
K.P. NAYAR
Washington, Oct. 24: Preparations for Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington on November 24 have begun on a negative signal to the Obama administration with a decision by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to host former President George W. Bush for dinner at Singh’s residence at the end of this month.
Bush is visiting New Delhi on October 30 and 31 at the invitation of an Indian newspaper and will speak at a conference organised in New Delhi on October 31 on “America Re-engaging with the World: Challenges, Opportunities and Risks”.
Arguably stung by the PMO’s insensitivity in ostentatiously receiving the bete noir of the Democratic establishment here just over three weeks before Singh’s arrival at the White House, the Obama administration announced yesterday that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will make her first trip to Islamabad.
Clinton, a long-time friend of India, has tried her best to prevent a return to hyphenated Indo-Pakistan relations under the Obama administration and had refused to include Pakistan in the 229,528km that she has flown in her nine months in office.
Despite the strategic importance of Pakistan in the Afghan conundrum that is confronting President Barack Obama, Clinton has so far left it to her minions to deal with the broad leadership in Islamabad.
But that will change with her first trip, which was significantly announced at a briefing by Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose prickly equations with New Delhi are well publicised here.
On the record, of course, no one in the Obama administration will say anything negative about the Bush trip to India because civility in political discourse is valued in the US. Nor will they suggest a Bush-India link in Clinton’s sudden decision to travel to Islamabad “soon”.
A source close to Clinton, however, said she recalled being kept hanging in her Senate office in 2001 while Sonia Gandhi repeatedly changed plans to meet her. The Indian embassy here had advised the Congress president that the Bush administration would not look favourably on a meeting with the former First Lady-turned-Democratic Senator from New York.
Instructions have gone out from the state department to the US embassy in New Delhi to extend all the courtesies that are due to a former American head of state and the ambassador in New Delhi, Timothy Roemer, will be correct, but not effusive in dealing with Bush.
But in private conversations, officials of the Obama administration, especially Democratic political appointees, make no secret of their sense of hurt over New Delhi’s decision.
This sense of hurt is shared by liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill, where enthusiasm about the Prime Minister’s visit was palpable until it became widely known here that the man whom many of them consider to be a war criminal is being needlessly feted in New Delhi at this time.
“We are rolling out the red carpet for your Prime Minister,” pointed out one Obama administration official. “Singh’s is the first state visit to be organised by the Obama administration. And what do you do? Invite the man who triggered the end of my country’s superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide.”
Said a Congressional aide: “In New Delhi people have been complaining for nine months, quite mistakenly, that Obama has downgraded the relationship with India. You have complaints about Obama’s nuclear policy, his climate policy and his trade policy.
“So the President decides to organise a grand show of bonhomie with your Prime Minister in the White House. Instead of making the most of this opportunity by both sides, your response is to slap us in the face by inviting the one man who is responsible for most of the problems on Obama’s shoulders.”
The wide-ranging sense of betrayal in hosting Bush little over three weeks before Singh travels to Washington is partly the result of a feeling here — perhaps mistaken — that it was the PMO which organised the invitation to Bush to visit New Delhi.
Some Americans insist that the US embassy in New Delhi had sent cables earlier, reporting government feelers to think tanks and non-government institutions to invite Bush to give a lecture in India as an excuse for the UPA government to thank him for what he did for Indo-US relations.
Sources who have seen these cables said such feelers began after Bush made his first trip outside North America in April to attend the Boao Forum in China, which is similar to the conference the former President will address in New Delhi on October 31.
In March, Bush made a feeble attempt to enter the lucrative lecture circuit by making a test trip to Calgary, Canada, where 1,500 people paid $400 per person to hear the former President. But protesters outnumbered listeners, media were kept out of the hall and the trip was deemed a disaster.
The only other known overseas trip made by Bush since relinquishing office was to South Korea in August to speak at an economic forum organised by the Federation of Korean Industries. But in this case, Korean industries had been working with him to overcome Republican opposition in the US Congress to the ratification of a Korea-US free trade agreement.
Love triangle: “The people of India deeply love you,” Singh had once told Bush, now headed to Delhi. Obama has been quoted as saying he considers India and Singh part of his family, but was that before he knew of Bush’s visit?
Obama needs to grow up!!
What a jerk. No...Obama Messiah...it is not all about you!
Obama’s a jerk. What else can one say?
That would be obama who ended our country's superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide, NOT President Bush!!
So, Obama doesn’t like it that President Bush actually has some international friends who are kind enough to invite him to their house for dinner?
baby Obama. Take the thumb out of thy mouth.
India knows that Bummer policy is far more likely to be a disaster for it than Bush policy would. India can see Bummer being dethroned before long, and us getting a president like Sarah Palin whose foreign policy would be more like Bush’s than Bummer’s.
“We are rolling out the red carpet for your Prime Minister,” pointed out one Obama administration official. “Singh’s is the first state visit to be organised by the Obama administration. And what do you do? Invite the man who triggered the end of my country’s superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide.”
BIG smile, here. Proof there’s still much ongoing
strident political effort to debase Pres. Bush
personally and directly by the Obots. Boo on
these arrogant adolescent jerks.
Bless you, Prime Minister Singh ... I remember
well your regard for our President: “The people
of India deeply love you.”
Looks to me like we should pay closer attention to the foreign press to see what Obama’s staffers are saying behind America’s back. Could make for good campaign material.
“So the President decides to organise a grand show of bonhomie with your Prime Minister in the White House. Instead of making the most of this opportunity by both sides, your response is to slap us in the face by inviting the one man who is responsible for most of the problems on Obama’s shoulders.”
These classless morons have no idea how this makes them look to the average decent, well-bred person.
These people are unbelievable.
Despite what we're repeatedly told, Bush had quite a few friends in other countries. When they say he wasn't popular internationally, they mean in Western Europe, and a handful of South American countries. Bush is well-liked in many Eastern European countries, many African countries (ironic, huh) and in some Asian countries as well.
Yeah, send them Hillary. They’ll really love you for that Obama. Hahahahaha.
Hint to Obama, don’t serve beef.
Bush established good relations with India while in office. They like him. They benefited from the relationship. Obama thinks one dinner changes everything? LOL
What a _______ ... I can’t come up with a word nasty enough for the Bummer administration.
Disgusting behavior on the part of this administration,
He never misses a chance to bash Bush in every way he can.
Inept, clumsy, it’s all about Obama all the time.
A grand show of bonhomie indeed, just another photo Op
for the One, but the natives should be grateful and
make the most of the opportunity of being in his presence.
Makes me ashamed to think we are allegedly
from the same country.
All the Bummer gang can do is make excuses.
It is very clear India's Prime Minister doesn't trust Obama. Maybe that's the passive-resistance message behind the dinner invitation. It was an upper-class cut, and very deliberate in my view.
Let them be steamed.
Changed my tagline, after the newest Federal “gay hate crime” legislation and now this. It was always true because I am a Christian, but I want to point out that the debauchery of this land has no claim upon me.
Can you believe these idiots?
In our White House ??
I keep trying to pinch myself and
awaken from this nightmare.
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