Obama Sorely Needs to See Invictus
It’s presumptuous for a film critic to suggest what movie the President should see on any given weekend.
But the film I have in mind isn’t your average drama, and it packs a message President Barack Obama sorely needs to hear.
That’s why he should buy a ticket for Invictus — and take along a notepad.
The new film follows Nelson Mandela’s first days as president of a post-apartheid South Africa. One way the former political prisoner united a fractured nation was by supporting the country’s maligned rugby team. He also extended a hand to those who kept the apartheid system alive for so long.
It’s a story that’s ripe for the big screen, although director Clint Eastwood’s superficial handling of the material dilutes its power.
But my recommendation has little to do with the film’s quality or the fact that Morgan Freeman recreates Mandela’s grace with stunning precision.
No, it’s the South African leader’s ability to bring people together which Obama should heed.
Mandela inherited a country reeling from the horrors of segregation, but he convinced his fellow South Africans to embrace forgiveness, not revenge. Obama, the so-called post-partisan, post-racial president, inherited a nation suffering from far less serious divisions but still managed to make matters worse.
Mandela wasn’t the eloquent spokesman Obama is, but when it came time to administer his brand of hope and change he delivered. Only ideologues with Kool-Aid stained lips could argue Obama has lived up to his pre-election promises of a less partisan administration.
It’s unreasonable to expect Obama, or any modern leader, to duplicate Mandela’s achievements. Yet Mandela proved you could lead while forging alliances with old foes. Obama, for his part, keeps pouring gasoline on the flames of discontent.
Just days ago he implored Republicans to “stop trying to frighten the American people.”
Invictus recalls how Mandela’s leadership and quiet dignity convinced his followers to move the country forward. It would have been far easier for him to punish those who helped keep the apartheid system intact, or at least enjoy some payback for years of degradation.
Few would have blamed him.
Instead, he retained some of the outgoing president’s staff and instructed his own inner circle to treat them with respect.
Mandela’s decision to back Springboks, the country’s underachieving rugby team, proved a critical decision in hindsight. The aged leader could have done the equivalent of voting present — letting citizens change the team’s name and trademark colors since it reminded many of the old guard at work. Instead, he saw the squad as a symbol of redemption, a chance to use sports for the national good.
Re: Rush Limbaugh. Why are you “partisan” if you’re conservative – or liberal, or whatever? Is this a liberal definition of partisan? i.e. You don’t agree to everything I say, so you are partisan. Ok, here is the definition from dictionary.com: “an adherent or supporter of a person, group, party, or cause, esp. a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance.” and I guess Rush and MANY others left and right fit the definition, but I am tired of people throwing partisan around like it’s a bad thing. If people weren’t “partisan” we would have no use for political parties, or groups that share a common interest now would we?
So it’s come to this, has it?
The leader of the “free” world, the great Harvard Hope of 330,000,000 American superpowers, should get his remedial social sciences from puking movie!
And it’s so bad that the suggestion arises from the Capital’s bastion of elite thinkers.
Yes. And it’s been that bad a long, long time.
What Obama and the world needs is an honest movie about Mandela and his terrorist roots followed up by his and his wife ruthless treatment of people.
Are you serious? Take a look and study up on what South Africa has become today, thanks in part to Mandela.
Christian, nicely written but you are suggesting that Obama not be Obama. Mandela, for all his faults, was imbued with a sense of self-sacrifice and humility. Perhaps all they have in common is their Marxism and their shared desire to tear down great nations by “spreading the wealth.”
I live in South Africa. I remember the events you speak of. You are utterly clueless. You have swallowed the whole Saint Nelson fairy-tale without a hint of analytical thought.
Nelson Mandela (spit!) is and was a terrorist. He “united” the country to such an extent that a quarter of the White population has left. That’s the official estimate. I believe it’s too low. In my family alone, I will be the last to leave. All my children, my brother, my sister, even my ex-wife have left. Most simply packed a suitcase and flew out. The government has no idea they’re gone.
The Whites who are left are being subjected to a low-level genocide with the tacit consent of the government. Farmers are being murdered, with the most unimaginable brutality, while the government pretends that it’s “only crime”. The Minister of Safety and Security responded in Parliament that people who complained about out-of-control crime could “continue to whinge… until they are blue in the face, or they can simply leave the country”. Those who can, are taking his advice. As they are forced out of the economy and the country, the country is collapsing. Electricity supplies are rationed with “rolling blackouts” as the infrastructure succumbs to lack of maintenance (the government-run power utility sacked the White technicians in favour of affirmative-action blacks).
But don’t take my word for it. The soccer world cup will be held here next year. Come on over here and see what your hero has wrought. Our criminals can hardly wait.
Obama blew his opportunity when he said “the cops acted stupidly”. Obama is a Nifong democrat through and through.
You mean the non-partisan, all-embracing Mandela who stated in 2003 that George Bush was dissing the U.N. because the Secretary-General (Kofi Annan) was Black? THAT Mandela!?
Toto boy: you mean Obama should unite the way bush did.. either you are with us or against us…like that right.
Phranc #3: please got to New York Times site and read a story that was published today that the vatican has accepted the resignation of Irish Bishop/Arch Bishop for sexual misconduct… there you will find your proof… but Phranc: don’t you worry about celibacy. It is here to stay for a long time.. the vatican and the Pontificate are now realizing that molesting a child in a western nation not only can be costly(they don’t give a s… about money because it is not theirs simpletons like you are financing them) but is risky such as going to jail. so they are rapidly setting up shop(church) in Africa where justice system is non existence and the priest there are having a field day with youn black boy!! you are ok with that anyways since you hate blacks. or simply set up say a conference in Laos or Cambodia or Thailand while there have a field day with little boys and girls since child prostitution is rampant!!!
You must be kidding us. Please, say you do, Mr. Toto. It’s jawdropping someone can still try to sell this Mandela-lie on PJM. Wow…
Mandela is a socialist tyrant with a reprehensible past and ties to less than savory characters. I wouldn’t praise the man for s**t.
9. mr:
Toto boy: you mean Obama should unite the way bush did.. either you are with us or against us…like that right.
Phranc #3: please got to New York Times site and read a story that was published today that the vatican [sic]has accepted the resignation of Irish Bishop/Arch Bishop for sexual misconduct… there you will find your proof… but Phranc: don’t you worry about celibacy. It is here to stay for a long time.. the vatican[sic] and the Pontificate are now realizing that molesting a child in a western nation not only can be costly(they don’t give a s… about money because it is not theirs simpletons like you are financing them) but is risky such as going to jail. so they are rapidly setting up shop(church) in Africa where justice system is non existence and the priest there are having a field day with youn [sic]black boy!! you are ok with that anyways since you hate blacks. or simply set up say a conference in Laos or Cambodia or Thailand while there have a field day with little boys and girls since child prostitution is rampant!!!
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So many things wrong here and I’m not talking about your butchering of the English language. For starters your post has squat to with the subject. Second a priest resigning is not proof that the Vatican encourages rape. Next where have I ever said I financially support the Catholic Church? I’d ask for proof but you would just make up some other lie and assumption. Can you please show where I ever said I hate black people? Again I won’t ask for proof as it begets nothing but lies and assumption. There is a chance I myself am black.
It must really suck being you. A bitter person who is so void of credibility if have to lash out and post the lies and assumptions like you do.
For the record I am white and atheist and a member of S.H.A.R.P.
As a South African who left SA three years ago, all I can say is WTF?? Mandela is simply a sacred cow, yes he does have his good points, he was far more reconciliatory to whites than the divisive Obama. However his and the ANC’s support for tyrants and jihadists is well-known, well to anybody who does even a little research on the ANC. SA as my fellow South African writes above, is a country falling apart – violence is rampant, poverty is getting worse and worse with every passing year, and the roads and infrastructure are decaying. Racism from blacks and whites is as bad as ever. There is indeed a low-level undeclared genocide in SA against white farmers, the far north of the country is starting to resemble Zimbabwe. The ANC are looting the taxpayer while people starve, unemployment is in the millions (in a country of about forty million people) and what does the ANC do to distract attention from the SA nightmare – Jew-baiting of course ala Chavez.
Yeah SA is a great example for Obama to follow …not.
@rrbs
“a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance.”
The Left doesn’t believe it shows a biased, emotional allegiance…they believe that they are so undeniably right about everything, that they are simply showing unimpeachable, self-evident common sense. Anyone who opposes anything they advocate out of such understanding is obviously an idiot, someone with an evil agenda, or an ideologue himself dedicated to some half-baked crackpot theory like natural climate change or free-market capitalism.
Fortunately, they are making a laughingstock out of themselves. Sadly, we’ll never convince them and simply have to put up with their din until they are replaced by a new generation. They have, to borrow a phrase from another ideology, “invincible ignorance.”
Mandela in his prime was a far better speaker than the con artist from Chicago. I got a sense at the time he really cared about the people of South Africa. Bishop Tutu earned respect then as well. Those sunny days of Hope and Change are long gone now. The ANC seems to be following Zimbabwe to national suicide. I won’t waste my money or time on this film, I have too much contempt for the America bashing, lover of totalitarian socialists Mandela.
Before Mr. Toto gets all weepy about the absence of apartheid in South Africa he needs to educate himself on the realities of black rule. Check the internet. For example here’s one report:
http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/12/farm-murders-details-photos-sources.html
Let’s not forget how little Mandel
The Bloom Is Off the Obama-Rose
In what must be a major trauma for Obamians, President Barack Hussein Obama’s rep as the Savior of All Mankind, the Second Coming of the Obamassiah, the Man Who Would Be King, the Man Who Would Bring Us Change and Salvation, after less than a year in office our president has come up against a shocking reality.
He’s none of the above.
Hot on the heels of repeated failures at home, in Asia, and in Europe, Mr. Obama went to Copenhagen where, despite all the bluster, he failed yet again at the United Nation’s Climate Change Summit.
His dramatic collapse in approval ratings was very predictable but his penchant for repetitive screw-ups, disappointments, and outright failures on various world stages were anything but predictable, at least to his idolators throughout the planet.
Just months ago, they still regarded him as the best thing to happen since Bill Clinton beat his impeachment rap.
Obama is sadly reminiscent of the title character in Hemingway’s short story, “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Francis’ pathetic life, however, ended on a distinct and glorious uptick after an extended period of living as a cowardly appendage of his wife, Margot, when a wounded African buffalo kills him.
Okay, all comparisons limp somewhat and Obama’s experience has been the reverse of Macomber’s.
After years of glory and acclaim, the president’s life, . . .
(Read the rest at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1378)
Mandela surely saved my life and I belief that of so many white and black South Africans alike. The comments of my fellow South African above is reflective of the enormity and complexity of the problems that South Africans face. South Africa was on the brink of civil war all our futures seemed dark. Blacks all over the world have suffered tremendously over the last 400 years under various forms of tyranny, brutality and cruelty, like slavery but apartheid ranked right up there. Black South African were treated worst than animals, Black could not even own a home or a car. Today I am an attorney. Were it not for Mandela, I would not have been here today. To my fellow South African brother, please let us build our country together. Yes we have problems but as united people we will prevail.