[Ed. note: My mistake below — President Obama’s state dinner for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled not for Wednesday, but for Tuesday. Apologies for the mix-up, and now you know, I’m not on this year’s White House A-list).
Wednesday, on the eve of Thanksgiving, President Obama will host his first state dinner, and – throng of Hollywood glitterati notwithstanding — there will be at least one voice of sanity on the premises: the guest of honor, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Singh is already making the rounds in Washington, where he spoke Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations. I dropped by, and found myself part of an overflow crowd. Singh is a big enough draw so that the later arrivals had to be funneled to a side room to watch the doings on big flat screen monitors. No matter. The messages came through – and rather than preening and obfuscating as official Washington is prone to do these days, the 77-year-old Singh greeted the crowd with humility and thanks for coming to hear him. He then spoke with refreshing clarity.
Singh did not talk about “violent extremists.” He calls them “terrorists,” as in his statement that “Terrorism poses an existential threat to the civilized world, and it must be defeated.”
Defeated where? On this, too, Singh was clear: “We should not harbor any illusions that a selective approach to terrorism, tackling it in one place while ignoring it in others, will work.”
We need a multinational alliance of democratic nations world wide: Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Columbia to counter China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and the new Central/south American devotees of Chavez. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq are key fronts in this conflict as Columbia continues to be along with world wide anti terror coordination with India, our NATO allies and Israel against Al Qaeda, Hizbullah and Hamas. Third piece is our nuclear capacity which involves offensive and defense and space capabilities; all of which the administration is gutting or allowing to flounder. Russia and China King and Queen on the chessboard of our adversaries are moving forward with long range nuclear development and space exploration. Time is running out.
1. Lawrence Kohn:
Nuclear proliferation is not the answer.
India has major problems feeding its population, bringing the masses to the 21st century ideas and solving many health issues.
Indian elites are doing well, but they are a minority.
To listen and heed the words of someone like India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, would be an oddity/rarity/imposibiliy for Obama. He does not appear to be interested in clarity, reason, America.
The issues raised by Singh refer to foreign relations.
Obama’s focus on foreign policy is bereft of policies and strategies and has only one agenda; to obtain their admiration for Him. The Nobel Award was a perfect example of this; admiration for Him despite having done nothing.
With regard to terrorism, Obama refuses to acknowledge its reality, changing the name of’war on terror’ to ‘overseas contingency operations’ and the term ‘terrorist’ to ‘insugent’.
He ignores the root cause of Islamic terrorism; namely, the repressive tribal dictatorships of the Middle East, the lack of a civic political frame enabling a middle class to devolop with economic and political power.
Obama refuses to acknowledge Islamic terrorism as a reality, whether in Afghanistan or Ft. Hood or 9/11. His insistence that the 9/11 Gang be tried in a civilian trial is evidence of this, for his agenda is to Bash Bush in an election year rather than confront Islamic terrorism.
With regard to Iran, he is ignoring its nuclear weapons agenda – such behavior was criticized by a furious Sarkozy – who said tha Obama’s refusal to acknowledge this showed he was living in a ‘virtual world’ of unreality and was so egotistic that he refused to learn.
Obama ignores the democratic aspirations of the Iranian demonstrators; supported the Honduran Zelaya’s violation of the constitution; alienated all US allies with insults.
So, what is Obama’s agenda on his foreign trips? Astonishingly, it seems to have nothing to do with the well-being of America. Nothing. It’s all about Himself.
He repeats his mantra of the Before-Obama Era, for which he graciously apologizes, and attempts to charm them with His Arrival in power. What Obama is using is a key tactic that he has used all his life to manipulate and control people. He’s used his ‘race’ to instil guilt IF they reject any of his requests.
This strategy obviously worked with his mother and grandmother, with the affimative action bureaucrats at Harvard etc, and with the US electorate. They have all fallen over themselves admitting, passing, agreeing to his wishes without checking, approving marks and assesssing work produced.
But it won’t work for a single foreign leader or people. Why not? Well,they can’t be made to feel guilty for the US era of slavery. But this is Obama’s key strategy that he uses in dealing with Other people.
Yes, he misinforms and provides false data; yes, he manipulates people with emotional charm and ‘shout outs’. These are his domestic tactics. But a key strategy that Obama uses with Authorities..is always the racist card. And it won’t work with non-Americans.
He tries to use it: he reminds them that he’s the ‘first black president’; that he’s the ‘first Pacific president’; that he had a dreadful, harassed racist-bashing upbringing in Chicago; that he, as black, is better than those ‘white imperialist Americans who came before Him’.
And it doesn’t work. They aren’t charmed. They think he’s an empty suit; an egotist,a fool.
Obama’s success, therefore, on the world stage, has been an absolute zero. And he’s harming the USA by his denigration of it and his insistence that attention should be on His Uniqueness rather than on America and Americans.
Ms. Rosett: It’s become all to clear by now that Obambi doesn’t listen to anyone but Obambi. For a guy with absolutely no executive experience, leadership experience, economic knowledge, military experience, business acumen or medical experience he apparently thinks he knows more then anyone else ever has known about EVERYTHING. So why in the world would he listen to someone from India? Whose probably not even a Moslem.
Hopefully this visit will raise awareness that not all turbaned and dark skinned people are followers of the prophet.
Maybe not.
Anyway, Obama’s greatest blessing is that his opponents and obstacles self-destruct, paving the path for his rise. Very curious. I know at least 7 people who switched their votes to Obama at the last minute, because of Palin. Though personally I voted for McCain, and probably will vote for Obama if Palin wins the republican nomination. Its not that people don’t admire her for her grit and great personality. But shes even less qualified than O. This is not for mayor or governor of some second tier state…but the PRESIDENCY
I’ll probably get flamed for this, thus proving theres no room for any semblance of moderation in the republican party. Palin will probably win the nomination and will probably be defeated in 2012. You can not run a presidential campaign nowadays -counting only on white protestant votes , and there arent enough numbers.
Perhaps you can get some swarthy non-anglo foreigners (like Tancredo) to vote for Palin, who knows. I’ll be rooting for Romney. Or Condi. My first choice is not very practical: Cheney.
Number 6. ETAB Thank you for putting my thoughts into a great comment!!
Excellent piece. Excellent posts @ #6 and #8.
Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents
The federal government spent $3.5 trillion during President Obama’s first year in office. This far exceeds the spending for any other first-year president.
President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents — spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.
In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion — $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush’s term and the first eight-and-a-half months of Obama’s.
That price tag came with a $1.4 trillion deficit, nearly $1 trillion more than last year. The overall budget was about a half-trillion more than Bush’s for 2008, his final full fiscal year in office.
Click here to read FOXBusiness.com’s Elizabeth MacDonald describe what the interest on the debt can buy.
That’s a big increase. But compared with other presidents’ first years in office, Obama is running circles around them.
Bush spent $1.8 trillion in 2001, according to government budget figures that have been adjusted for inflation based on 2000 dollars. Using the same formula, former President Bill Clinton spent $1.6 trillion in 1993.
The last president to clock in under $1 trillion was Gerald Ford, who logged a $982 billion budget in 1975. Post-war Dwight Eisenhower even brought Uncle Sam’s tab down to $556 billion in his first year, 1953.
Obama’s first-year budget, adjusted for inflation, is about five times that. His 2009 budget is also close to 21 percent of that for Clinton’s eight years in office — Clinton’s spending added up to $13.5 trillion over his two full terms. Bush spent $16.8 trillion from 2001-2008.
Number 8. Ronald Reagan also lacked Presidential experience but unlike the current POTUS he surrounded himself with some of the brightest minds in our country. Can’t say the same for BHO.