Gilda Radner once played a character on “Saturday Night Live” called Emily Litella. This Emily Litella generally would sit with another news anchor on “Weekend Update,” and would read a seemingly serious editorial. She invariably misunderstood some word or issue in this editorial and would go off at length on this misunderstanding … bringing up irrelevant nonsense after irrelevant nonsense. Finally her co-anchor would tell Emily Litella that her original jumping off point was in error … at which point Emily Litella would shrug and say, "Never mind.”Yesterday, I wrote a bit of a puff blog on Barack Obama, complementing him on his contribution to the convivial nature of the G20 economic summit in London (see: New World Order). Now, today we see Obama has given a speech in Strasbourg, France (see French Town Meeting) in which he went out of his way to disrespect the country over which he governs. He said that the United States:
- had often behaved arrogantly towards Europe, and had been “dismissive, even derisive",
- “shares the blame [for the world economic meltdown] ... we've just emerged from an era marked by [our] irresponsibility".
- “now embodies [in him] the new idealism and the new fight for progress … on climate change, on clearing up the financial and economic mess left by his predecessors, and all the other mega-problems.”
- has shown “a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world."
- "made a mistake by allowing the Taliban to reemerge [in Afghanistan] during the height of the Iraq war."
So, Obama still can’t resist, on foreign soil no less, in berating the United States for its flaws and in believing that he will lead our country back on the path that Europeans will find more palatable.
Re: my new respect for Obama’s leadership, “Never mind.”
Hmm. As I ticked-off your brief against Obama's alleged dissing of the USA, I couldn't help but agree with his statements.
ReplyDeleteI guess if you were supportive of the Bush "bring-it-on" statesmanship, you might find these indictments hit a little close to home. As the other Radner SNL character, Roseanne Rosanadana would have said "It's always something."
Since Obama has never been in a management position before, it is understandable (but not forgivable) that he doesn't know that you are not supposed to dress down a subordinate in front of other employees. What Obama did in Strasbourg ... dissing the U.S.A. in front a mob of cheering Eurotrash teens ... (whether true or not) is equivalent and therefore (excuse the expression) bush. (I guess DEN never took Management 101 either.)
ReplyDeleteAnd, for your future reference, it's "Roseannne Roseannadanna" (I can say this here since nobody else will be reading this comment.)