Obama has made a smart and telling move in naming Utah’s Jon Huntman ambassador to China. We all know why it’s smart; bipartisanship and all that right in the middle of Pelosi’s pathetic tantrums. What’s telling is that in choosing someone for what is now easily the most important ambassadorial post, the one that takes the utmost in knowledge and diplomatic discretion, this most liberal of Presidents decided not to pick someone from his own party. What does this say about Obama and what does that say about his party? I leave that to you.
Meanwhile, in modern Russia, hellbent on returning to the glory days of the Soviet Union, gays are once again being oppressed, just as they were, heavily, in Soviet times. Communist governments tend not be friendly to gays. Cuba’s record is well known. The treatment of gays in the Islamic Middle East (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Hamas, Hezbollah, now even Iraq) is yet worse. Do we see any dots to connect here? Oh, I forgot. America is the problem.
In five months the laws of America has been ripped apart and the world has and is regressing to the 40′s. Hate is running rapid, Religious freedom is on the back burner with ughly flames shooting out from those burners in every direction. Why is everyone so afraid of the Gay Community around the world, is it not the Terrorist that are killing and destroying our lives that had progressed to a more peaceful one. Even China had seen the advantage of progress in the manufacturing world for financial strength, one that would lead them to their goals , becoming the leaders of the world. Russia had better wake up to the facts of their being in a wrong direction again, Gays are not the enemy that will destroy them, enemys of the past will, and history tells us who that country is. China and the US now have strong ties and the choice of Jon Huntsman is one of the smartest moves Pres. Obama has made to tighten our relationship and respect of the Chinese Government.
As a straight 76 yr. old women, I hope to see a more respectful, peaceful world , that wins the battle of hatred by being oppressed, “Roger’s words in the
above” but dirrected at the Terrorist, not the Gay’s. i respect you for continueing your battle for a better world. Roger L. Simon. Keep it up.
The left is now interpreting the nomination as a sign that potential Republican candidates for president are giving up on the party to “carry water” for a Democrat. It’s interesting to see this obsession with tactics once again. First, I’ve never heard of him and I pay attention to politics. Second, maybe he wanted some international experience to fill out his resume. If you see everything through one small prism, you can miss the significance of things. They cannot imagine that anyone would be unhappy with Obama, except right wing ideologues. They think this is all good governance. No concept of where the money is coming from because, I suspect, they have never had to make money, it was always a salary.
Funny what gays worry about in the USA:”Can I get married?”.Guess what homosexuals in the Third World worry about,you privilaged little California punks:”Can I live?”
Sometimes I think Obama is too clever by half. What happens in California on Tuesday may give us a clearer view of where the rest of the country will follow soon enough.
“What does this say about Obama and what does that say about his party?”
Barack Obama is obsessed by his poll numbers. He may be worse than Bill Clinton in this regard. The selection of a Republican for this most important diplomatic post helps him to buttress his moderate credentials.
The 2000 movie Before Night Falls concerns gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. Even the leftist film community felt compelled to take Castro’s regime to task. And yes, this persecuted individual had far more to worry about than gay marriage. This is indeed an obsession that only gay citizens living in Western countries can afford. Communist cultures are usually racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, viciously anti-gay, and overall hypocritical. As a practical manner, the KKK would have a hard time competing against such nastiness. The Commies were merely covert regarding their true beliefs while Klan members were overt.
I was going to ask “Who is Jon Huntman?”, but then a better question came to me. Who is the current (or recently retired) ambassador to China? Sorry, I cannot name him or her. In our current celebri-presidency do we really care who ambassadors are? If BO has something to say to the Chinese PM won’t he just pick up the phone and speak directly to him as with Ahmadinejad, Hugo or the CEO of GM?
Not that one should consider Wikipedia to be the ultimate resource in such things, but if Mr. Huntman were someone whose selection would matter in the left-right chess game, shouldn’t he at least have an entry there? The whole ambassadorship thing seems like a remnant of a ’50′s era State Department lacking e-mail and Hi-Def videoconferencing.
MikeK, look him up and then you will know who he is and just how surprised he was when the call came. How many American’s have his ability and language skills and if there was one in the Democratic Party, I am sure he would have been called.
Have a good day.
Calif. Dreamer;Deplomacy may be from the 40′s, but it is still better than war if it can be prevented.
Maybe the Russians don’t want to end up like America. Can’t say I blame them.
There is now truth in Pravda
Anita, you missed the point. Diplomacy isn’t dead, but it could be restructured from the days when couriers carried the ambassador’s instructions in a briefcase chained to their wrist. Unfortunately, BO seems to lack managerial experience to allow just the right amount of decision making authority at various levels of his administration. We’ll see if he can begin changing that perception by giving Mr. Panetta enough rope to deal with the Speaker.
“Deplomacy may be from the 40’s, but it is still better than war if it can be prevented.”
There is diplomacy—and there is diplomacy. The wrong kind helped to usher in WWII. Neville Chamberlain and the other appeasing diplomats were played for suckers by Adolph hitler. They foolishly thought that signed agreements validated their hope for peace. Sadly, these actions merely emboldened the already dangerous Fuhrer.
I don’t really think the appointment says that much about Obama or the Democratic Party. I mean, most ambassadorial posts (at least important ones) are filled from the cadre of professional State Dept / foreign service types, whose party affiliations are not really matters of public record. That Huntmans’s is is unusual, but that doesn’t mean it’s some huge boundary-jumping feat of non-partisanship on Obama’s part to choose him, or that it’s a sign that there’s somehow a not-so-deep Democratic foreign service bench. I think it just shows that Obama’s a sensible guy and made a good pick, but it’s not a huge deal.
also, it;s not as if there were any big differences between Obama and McCain on China policy anyway, so, again, just not a big deal to pick Hunstman
David T. You are right, it has always been a trick of mouth when it comes to Deplomacy, I believe Hitler was a master of the use, even to those in his circle and then in pulling Mousolini into his web. However, over 60 years later has anyone in the political game learned from those mistakes against
humanity, are they still not in full play I do agree with you 100%, it is still sad.
Calif. Dreamer, I did not miss the point, of course the modern age of computer’s is the way of messageing, however, having a Diplomat that speaks multiple dialects of Manderin and has lived in China knowing their culture is better than one that is not that fluid in their language and customs. Nancy
Pelosi would and is a time bomb when it comes to dealing with countries that are male controlled and we all have seen how her words are very un- diplomatic and truthful. I would question anything that comes from her mouth. Have a good week.
Looks like Yawn Huntsman just checked his name off the GOP list. Maybe his family is down to its last billion and wants to cozy up to the Communis…er…’leadership’ of China. Or there is the Mormon thing about a billion AMWAY selling, bush as bees Chinese Mormons down the road.
What ever. No change agent there.
I heard that Iran is looking to get into the film industry with remakes of old spaghetti westerns. The remake of the 1968 classic Hang Em’High is scheduled but they have run out of gay actors for some of the scenes. They don’t mess around with that special effects stuff. Don’t think many of our out of work hollywood extras would be interested.
Who is the current (or recently retired) ambassador to China? Sorry, I cannot name him or her.
That says more about your ignorance than it does about the importance of the position.