The man who gave the Queen an iPod, and other curiosities
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr has an entertaining retrospective on President Obama’s recent apology tour of Europe, where he gave the Queen an iPod with recordings of Obama’s Greatest Hits. Tyrell detects arrogance and ignorance in roughly equal portions throughout the tour:
along comes the precedent-shattering President Obama traveling through Europe on his virginal passport, a passport that was used precisely once before he became a national political figure. His tour of Europe was the burlesque of a preening popinjay. He gave the Queen an iPod. His wife gave her a friendly squeeze. Oh yes, and the President declared that the official language of German-speaking Austria is “Austrian.” All that was amusing, but the criticism of his homeland while in Europe was not…
While in Europe, our sententious president blamed America for genocide and torture. He brought up Hiroshima and Guantanamo. He accused us of arrogance. What can President Obama possibly have against arrogance? Since his emergence on the national stage a year or so ago, he has given me the impression that he considers arrogance among the virtues.
It was in Strasbourg, among what he might call the Strasbourgundians, that he was most critical of his country. Said our president: “Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”…
our President noted to his European audience that a new financial order is being created by the world’s top 20 financial powers, not by “just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy….But that’s not the world we live in, and it shouldn’t be the world that we live in.” Whoever told our president that the post-World War II world came from these two great men “sitting in a room with a brandy” misinformed him. His knowledge of history is as defective as is his knowledge of Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s tastes.
Meanwhile, allies of the administration are mincing no words when it comes to the tea parties. A Democratic congresswoman from Illinois whose husband went to jail for bank fraud, no less, criticized the tea parties as follows: “It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt…Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”
It seems that the Obama administration is a curious mixture of naked political hardball on the one hand, and a kind of ignorant arrogance on the other. Where will this combination take us?
April 17th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
IMO Rep. Schakowsky’s remarks are of a piece with Phil Gramm’s ‘nation of whiners’ comment.
I agree with thistea party:
They should have put the graph of Bush’s and Obama’s deficits under their portraits.
And ‘dumb’ may be a charitable explanation of the political establisment’s behavior.
April 17th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
You people: Give us your money and shut up. The populace exists to be exploited by your government.
This is the status of Representative Democracy, 2009. Is there any wonder people are fed up with both parties? With rare exceptions, most of Congress is beholden to special interest groups intent on extracting money from the Federal coffers for purposes that are not in the best interests of most Americans.
The people allow themselves to be played for fools by the representatives who are supposed to be working for them. The money I paid these people was mostly wasted. That wasn’t enough. My children and grandchild are being indebted by wastrels and buffoons. I’m voting against them all, and I urge you to do the same. One way or another, what cannot continue will not.