Post-Anti-Americanism (The World Pities America MASSIVE BARF ALERT)

Newsweek ^ | 8/11/2010 | Howard Fineman

[Dallas59]

You can still buy an American newspaper at the kiosk in Rome’s Piazza Colonna, but you have to ask the lady behind the counter. She turns from the window, paws through a stack on the floor, and produces an International Herald Tribune, holding it at arm’s length like a day-old fish. It’s the same availability and tone in Venice, the Greek islands, and Istanbul. The implicit question in the transaction is always the same: why would you want to read that thing about that place at this time?

And when you read about America in European newspapers, what you are likely to find is a tone bordering on pity. The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and mindless war. Sure, the iPad is cool, but it is evidence of what America was, not what it will be again. The stories are not angry, accusatory, or even ideological. It’s worse: they are condescendingly elegiac.

[Dallas59]

Ugh. I pity America too....that pity will remove a useless but dangerous President in 2012.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

OK, but even with the ideological infant in chief we have, and the congress that can’t shoot straight, people from around the world are still trying to get in here. Hatred for the US has always been based in envy.

[Dallas59]

40 million here and more coming everyday.

[Ravi]

Fineman has it half right. Obama is an complete empty suit but Europe is no picnic either.

[Dallas59]

Yep......But he hasn’t finished the job of destroying the country he hates....

[IronJack]

The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and mindless war.

Aside from the "mindless war" accusation, I tend to agree. But wasn't Obama going to rehabilitate our image abroad? Wasn't he going to restore our former glory overseas? Wasn't it George Bush who ruined America for all our loving allies in their ennui-ridden crackerbox countries? How could anyone see America as anything but a shining paragon of tolerance and progressivism, now that Obama is our "leader?"

[bereanway]

The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and mindless war. Sure, the iPad is cool, but it is evidence of what America was, not what it will be again.”

Yeah, the iPad, that’s what I’m thinkin. That’s what America’s really all about.

Are the Euro’s really that clueless?

[Vincent Jappi]

Just get rid of that usurping Communist clique and respect will return, together with prosperity.

[La Lydia]

One of the reasons Europe pities us is that we have journalists like Howard Fineman. One of the reasons parts of the country look so shabby is that there are too many people riding in the wagon and not enough pulling it — including the millions of poverty-stricken peasants we take in each year. We no longer spend public money for the public good. Instead, Congress uses it to award special interests and voting blocs. We are becoming a kind of dysfunctional welfare state like so much of Europe. The debt and stagnation can be squarely laid at the feet of a disgustingly corrupt Congress, in particular Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Our President is a joke.

[luvbach1]

Depressing whether or not all the attitudes are valid. But when America was riding high we were still held in low esteem by most.

[luvbach1]

Your post #9 really nails it.

[Dallas59]

Yep we’ve always been accused of not being “Europe” or like the rest of the world. But we do have a European/African/Asian/Islamic president.

[luvbach1]

Well said in your post #6.

[alecqss]

Fineman’s article is a severe case of wishful thinking. Then again, it's Newsweek.

[colorado tanker]

But wasn't Obama going to rehabilitate our image abroad?

Supposedly. That's what the Messiah assured us when he gave his speech in front of the Berlin Victory Monument and all through his later apology tour.

I guess that "reset" button didn't work.

[IronJack]

I knew a Colorado tanker once. Guy by the name of Tim ...

[luvbach1]

Obummer apologies helped the US lose what respect it had.

[Will88]

Any jackass can go out and cobble together a handful of quotes and personal anecdotes to come to whatever conclusions they wish. This little column is more about how Fineman wants to portray the US at this particular time than it is about credible journalism or any accurate reading of reality.

[gogogodzilla]

The debt and stagnation can be squarely laid at the feet of a disgustingly corrupt Congress, in particular Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Whom, unfortunately, we as Americans keep voting for.

That's the beauty and the tragedy of voting in a Republic.

Personally, I'd restore the original voting system in America. IE: only those that own property can vote.

That way, the only people voting have a vested interest in seeing our country grow and prosper. (As who wants to see their property go down in value?)

[carcraft]

ditto’s Iron Jack LOL