Hot on the heels of the already bad presidential optics emerging from the Nuclear Security Summit this week, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post appears to get himself into quite a snit: “Obama’s disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit”:
World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.
They entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a May Day parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard truck.
AdvertisementIn the middle of it all was Obama — occupant of an office once informally known as “leader of the free world” — putting on a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.
And after all the Post has done for Obama (as their late former Ombudsman admitted, conveniently after the election, of course). But when Milbank compares The One’s summit to “Soviet-era Moscow” and “a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press”, does he consider those good or a bad things?
I know what the Post’s counterparts at the other end of the Northeast Corridor think in their heart of hearts.
Update: Perhaps Milbank’s rhetoric has caused the president to back off from his jingoistic hardline stance…“whether we like it or not.”
“New heights”? Well, it is a summit after all.
Does The WaPo Think This Is Good Or Bad?
A) Soviet-era-Moscow style summit
B) Secrecy clinic for dictators
C) Disregard for media
One out of three ?
It’s incredibly sad that a woman was killed in a collision with a National Guard truck, but what has it got to do with anything? Is he implying some sort of evil military conspiracy to murder the woman or is this an accusation of Death Race 2000 style marauding by the National Guard? Are the people killed last year in DC in collisions with taxis evidence of a secret cabal of hack assassins? Or is he simply using the coincidence to make the military presence seem sinister?
I go with Death Race 2000 – now maybe Milbank understands the whole concept of respect?
‘Beyond conspiracy police state america.’
Google. Examine the resources and references.
The problem with the doctrine of American Exceptionalism is that it blinds you to the possibility that America is not immune from history.
It not only can happen in America…it has already happened.
(As for Obama? Why the surprise about the soccer game that never happened? He’s openly lied about everything else, including his nationality, his resume, his education, his performance as a professor, as a Senator and as President… What is there about his character, words and deeds that leads you to think that he is an honest and ethical man or that anything he says can be accepted at face value?)
Crabtree, I agree the “bicyclist killed by NG truck” was a cheap shot to create the impression of the military harshly controlling the streets without regard for mere civilians. of course, what else would you expect from the Post?
Having had the misfortune of having to deal with downtown D.C. traffic and bicyclists for several years, I would bet, barring further evidence, that the person riding the bicycle rode directly in front of the NG vehicle with no regard for rules of the road, traffic laws, or the laws of physics….
At this point, most of my sympathy lies with the driver of the truck.