Friday, April 24, 2009

Post Chavez handshake press conference

April 24, 2009

barry’s post-summit solo press conference. barry thinks he did nothing wrong and is certain the American People won’t either. His naivete is stunning. How soon before Iran wants their photo op? And North Korea and Syria….And then he says he doesn’t worry about the politics when that is all he does. Listen to the video and you can hear it in his voice. He sounds like a kid who dropped his ice cream cone on the sidewalk after his mom warned him not to mess around. I feel sorry for him. Reality is setting in and it’s 100 days or so in.

MiddleEastNews

BARRY: I think it was a nice gesture to give me a book. I’m a reader.

He seems to have forgotten the meaning behind it. [see link]

BARRY: You’re right. We had this debate throughout the campaign. I mean the whole notion was that somehow if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us that that somehow would be a sign of weakness. And the American people didn’t buy it. And there’s a reason they didn’t buy it — cause it didn’t make sense.

He’s angry here. He seems to have forgotten that he backed off the no preconditions as the polls dictated and then he went ahead and did just what he said he’d do the first time he was asked.[link: barry's new rogue leader foursome]

Their little unmonitored chat was completely inappropriate. Even if it was innocuous - it didn’t look right to other leaders. I can only imagine how Colombia felt, especially after the trade deal was nixed. And who did that translator belong to? The way she was looking at the Venezuela TV camera it had to be Chavez’s.

It’s one thing to have a polite respectful greeting between to heads of states and another to have a good old boy open mouth smile, prolonged hand touching and mutual fawning for the cameras in plain view of the other leaders. They may not feel personally snubbed but their people will wonder why they weren’t “important enough” to get a private chat.

He just doesn’t get that there are rules he must play by. Rules he is expected to play by. That’s why they exist.

And the press is partially to blame for that. He didn’t have to play by any rules during the primaries or general election — everything he did was golden. Now he’s realizing he’s in deep water without a lifeguard. The press should have gone after him more after the first trip and perhaps this would not have happened. Instead they labeled it a success!! Bow and all.

What’s Biden able to tell him compared with what Secretary Clinton would be able to tell him?

Yes, he let his pride take precedence over the American People when he refused to ask Clinton to be VP. Time will bear that out. He won the nomination because of his “superior judgment” on Iraq and now he’s proven he couldn’t even be Secretary of State and would qualify for few if any cabinet positions.

Here he focuses on whether Venezuela is a threat to the US militarily. We’ve heard this before on the stump:

May 18, 2008: Iran, Cuba and Venezuela- these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us.

May 19, 2008: Let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat.

But the economic and diplomatic threats are real.

BARRY: You take a country like Venezuela - I have great differences with Hugo Chavez on matters of economic policy and on matters of foreign policy. His rhetoric directed at the United States has been inflammatory. There have been instances in which we’ve seen Venezuela interfere with some of the countries that surround Venezuela in ways that I think are of some concern.

On the other hand, Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the US. They own Citgo. [laughs dimissively] It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation [it didn't look the least bit polite] with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States.

I don’t think anyone can find any evidence that that would do so. [derisive] Even in this imaginative crowd.

[He does the Bill Clinton hand motion]

I think you’d be hard pressed to paint a scenario in which US interests would be damaged as a consequence of us having a more constructive relationship with Venezuela.

That’s provided that what he just did leads to a more constructive relationship. He has no way of knowing that. Just like Sen Clinton pointed out in that original debate. And if it improves one relationship and damages 10 others that then severely impact the US economy?

I can’t quite understand his kumbayaism. I’m beginning to wonder if he really really believes that just by talking to him they will see the light like he said on the stump:

Jan 7, 2008: A light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany … and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack!”

He must really believe. It seems very sad.

BARRY: So, if the question Dan is, how is this going to play politically, I don’t know.

Upset. Bummed out. And then comes the bold-faced lie - the thing he is 100% concerned with because it is how he operates. Politically expedience.

One of the benefits of my campaign and how I’ve been trying to operate as president is I don’t worry about the politics. I try to figure out what’s right in American interests and on this one I think I’m right.

That’s not what his face says. His face says I blew it…again. Hence his fleeing to Iowa to stock up on adoration.

I haven’t been watching anything so I don’t know how it played out. I just hope there are no more summits for a few months until he reads the playbook or uploads the presidential manual to his ipod.

==========================

“It’s (always) Bush’s fault”
barry’s naivete clear on both trips
The true meaning behind Chavez’s “gift”
barry’s new rogue leader foursome
barry’s bud, Hugio Chavez calls Pres Bush “The Devil”
barry shakes Hugo Chavez’s and Daniel Ortega’s hands
Hugo Chavez gives barry a book and gets a photo op
barry’s not so genial private chat with Chavez
Post Chavez handshake press conference

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