Mourning in America

The New York Times, which has never met a Pinchurian Candidate it didn’t admire, is happy to provide Vladimir Putin a platform to address Americans, in sharp contrast to its unwillingness to run an op-ed by John McCain rebutting Mr. Obama in 2008.

The conclusion of Putin’s article today is certainly…interesting:

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

As with all advice from the Kremlin these days, I doubt Mr. Obama would argue with that; recall what he famously said in 2009 on the subject himself, shortly after taking office as America’s Community Organizer in Chief:

“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Think Putin or his ghostwriter remembers those remarks? As Iowahawk tweeted today:

Putin now just basically doing donuts in Obama’s front yard http://t.co/YuN2SdfMkd

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 12, 2013

The Washington Post’s Slate claims that “If your foreign policy has to be rescued by a dictator, you are doing it wrong,” but I’m not sure if Thomas Friedman — or (especially) Pinch Sulzberger — would agree.

Update: “Yes, Mitt Romney was Right about Everything.”

And from last year, “Operation Hot Mic,” by American Crossroads. “Dimitry will transmit the information!”

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Late Update (9/12/13): Jim Treacher has the video of Obama’s 2009 Clinton-esque parsing of the notion of American exceptionalism — so infra dig and déclassé to any sophisticated New York Times reader, such as Putin or himself:

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“Putin knows his enemy. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Whereas Obama is a bumbling dilettante. Our country is being run by a callow amateur,” Treacher writes. “Just like we’ve been saying for half a decade now. You wouldn’t listen, so here we are.”

Indeed.™