Posted on 03/17/2011 1:16:05 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – As a nuclear nightmare stalks Japan, and Libya and Bahrain crush hopes for reform, US President Barack Obama on Friday heads to an oasis of surprising stability in a troubled world -- emerging Latin America.
Obama plans to highlight an amazing economic leap forward by Brazil, which has lifted millions from poverty and won a new global influence that President Dilma Rousseff seems keen to wield.
He will cite Chile's evolution from authoritarian misery to increasingly prosperous democracy as an example for Middle Eastern nations emerging from repression.
And in El Salvador, Obama hopes to show that Washington's engagement can squeeze political oxygen from regional foes like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
Analysts and officials said that Obama's five-day journey will be the signature trip within the Western Hemisphere of his first term.
The White House insists the trip will go ahead, even as crisis rage elsewhere in the world, saying that with his sophisticated traveling communications package, Obama can wield power from anywhere.
Washington sees the trip as a chance to reassert US weight in a region attracting global interest, and investment dollars, from as far away as China.
"There is a long history of American presidents not paying a lot of attention to Latin America," said Moises Naim, a renowned regional specialist with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
But Brazil's new primacy in particular now demands US attention, Naim said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Personally, I'd refuse him an entry visa.
As a nuclear nightmare stalks Japan, and Libya and Bahrain crush hopes for reform, US President Barack Obama, shown here on March 16, on Friday heads to an oasis of surprising stability in a troubled world -- emerging Latin America. (AFP/File/Saul Loeb)
Better idea: Can we deny him a visa for re-entry?
He should have gone to Hawaii.
Even Jimmy Carter had the man parts to walk around Three Mile Island.
Don't I remember the MSM getting all upset when Dubya went to his ranch? They never mentioned he took the job and problems with him wherever he went! He was always "on vacation."
And in Barry's tiny little pea brain, this will make perfect sense. After all, the Middle-Eastern dynamic is just like South America's dynamic. /s
Obama perplexes me because he’s the one who believes a crisis should never go to waste. He’s had several and has not even tried to use them to his advantage. He’s been utterly aloof. Bill Clinton sure wouldn’t have wasted those opportunities.
Yet what agenda he does have Obama keeps ramming down our throat. He doesn’t even try to give himself cover, it’s just pure thuggish audacity. If it’s no interest to him though he doesn’t do a damn thing, just goes out and parties. He reminds me of a Mid-east dictator: brutal but can’t see beyond the end of his nose.
I heard that he was going to the Japanese embassy in D.C. this afternoon to sign the condolence book. Sounds like he’s milking the Japan crisis for at least one photo op and the chance to enrich the Japanese people by his autograph.
Michelle, why don't you do some shopping while I'm on my inspection tour . . .
was speaking to a Brazilian acquaintance of mine the other day who told me that Lula, rather than lifting the poor people up, just dragged down the middle class and the lower reaches of the upper class to a lower standard of living.
But hey, that did make things more “equal”.
Follow? Nah.....
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