Usa Thread

[Flashermac]

Barack Obama blunders again on the world stage

 

 

It is only two weeks since his re-election, and his second term remains two months away, but Barack Obama is already blundering again on the world stage, with the kind of gaffes that would have been plastered on the front page of The New York Times if they had been committed by George W. Bush when he was in the White House. Obama's first term was littered with foreign policy gaffes, and there is every chance the second term will be more of the same.

 

On his trip to Asia this week, President Obama struggled to pronounce the name of Aung San Suu Kyi, the most prominent human rights activist in the world. As The Associated Press reports (hat tip: Drudge Report):

 

"As Obama stood next to the world's most recognized democracy icon, he mispronounced her name repeatedly.

 

"Ever gracious, Suu Kyi did not correct her American guest for calling her Aung YAN Suu Kyi multiple times during his statement to reporters after their meeting.

 

"Proper pronunciation for the Nobel laureate's name is Ahng Sahn Soo Chee."

 

Obama also “botched†his greeting of Burma’s new president, according to the AP:

 

The meeting came after Obama met with Myanmar's reformist new President Thein Sein – a name he also botched.

 

As the two addressed the media, Obama called his counterpart "President Sein," an awkward, slightly affectionate reference that would make most Burmese cringe.

 

(Note to presidential advisers: For future rounds of diplomacy, the president of Myanmar is President Thein Sein – on first and second reference.)

 

In addition, as The Weekly Standard notes, Obama was quick to use the Burmese regime’s preferred word “Myanmarâ€, to describe Burma, which is not the term officially used by the US government, or by Burma’s opposition activists.

 

"President Barack Obama called Burma 'Myanmar' after a bilateral meeting with Thein Sein, the president of that country. From the pool report:

 

"Obama used the word "Myanmar," the preferred terminology of the former military government and currently nominally civilian government, in a spray following the bilat, rather than use "Burma," the former name of the country, and the one preferred by Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the name the U.S. government uses.

 

"I've shared with him the fact that I recognize this is just the first steps on what will be a long journey," Obama told reporters, with Thein Sein at his side. "But we think a process of democratic and economic reform here in Myanmar that has been begun by the president is one that can lead to incredible development opportunities."

 

It is rather embarrassing, as well as sad, that the leader of the free world can’t even pronounce the name of the most famous human rights activist on the planet. Or that he is so quick to appease Burma’s authoritarian regime by calling it “Myanmarâ€. Barack Obama’s gaffes demonstrate not only a marked lack of attention to detail and a high degree of amateurishness on the part of the White House, but also a disturbing willingness to curry favour with unsavoury regimes. Hardly a good omen for Obama’s second term.

 

http://blogs.telegra...he-world-stage/

[cavanami]

Watching the putz on the Thai News when he arrived, he said "Burma"...I still often say Burma but I am

not the Prez and a world leader...

[Flashermac]

[Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/opinion/duty-before-party-for-gov-chris-christie.html?_r=0

 

A report in The Times on Tuesday by Michael Barbaro showed just how low Republican leaders sank in the final week of the presidential campaign. Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast eight days before Election Day, and all the party could see was a Republican governor praising a Democratic president. When the president visited New Jersey, Mr. Christie had the temerity to describe him as “outstanding†and “incredibly supportive.â€

Republicans don’t forget that kind of thing, said Douglas Gross, a party operative in Iowa. “The presumption is that Republicans can’t count on him,†Mr. Gross said. At the Republican Governors Association meeting last week, Pat McCrory, the governor-elect of North Carolina, told Mr. Christie: “People keep asking me why you were so nice to the president.†He added, “I tell them you are doing your job,†but the message was conveyed.

It wasn’t just the praise for the president, though, that seemed to bother Mr. Romney’s supporters. For years, the party’s loudest activists have tried to delegitimize Mr. Obama, questioning his birthplace and his patriotism, even calling him a socialist and saying outright that he was in over his head.

How could you stand so close to Mr. Obama on the tarmac, one donor to Mr. Romney asked, suggesting that physical proximity to the president was out of line. How could you have boarded the presidential helicopter for a tour of the shore? Apparently party leaders and donors really expected Mr. Christie to refuse to meet the president at a time when his state was suffering. They wanted him to reflect their own pettiness — so obvious in the last four years — and shun the hand dispensing federal aid.

We have previously been critical of some of Mr. Christie’s shortsighted actions as governor, but it was hard not to admire him for standing up to his party’s worst elements and putting his state first.

[Bangkoktraveler]

What is up McCain's and Graham's ass with regards to Susan Rice? They are acting as if she engineered the Benghazzi thing herself. She's a minor bit part in all of it. Is it some sort of move to force the President to expend some political capital?

McCain is a hypocrite in the whole thing. When Condi Rice was being nominated for a position, she had the WMD baggage and he attributed the Democratic objections to her as sour grapes over the mid term elections.

Condi Rice had a LOT to answer for. Susan Rice in comparison has been exemplary from all accounts in representing our interests at the UN. Not sure why.

http://www.nytimes.c...istie.html?_r=0

 

A report in The Times on Tuesday by Michael Barbaro showed just how low Republican leaders sank in the final week of the presidential campaign. Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast eight days before Election Day, and all the party could see was a Republican governor praising a Democratic president. When the president visited New Jersey, Mr. Christie had the temerity to describe him as “outstanding†and “incredibly supportive.â€

Republicans don’t forget that kind of thing, said Douglas Gross, a party operative in Iowa. “The presumption is that Republicans can’t count on him,†Mr. Gross said. At the Republican Governors Association meeting last week, Pat McCrory, the governor-elect of North Carolina, told Mr. Christie: “People keep asking me why you were so nice to the president.†He added, “I tell them you are doing your job,†but the message was conveyed.

It wasn’t just the praise for the president, though, that seemed to bother Mr. Romney’s supporters. For years, the party’s loudest activists have tried to delegitimize Mr. Obama, questioning his birthplace and his patriotism, even calling him a socialist and saying outright that he was in over his head.

How could you stand so close to Mr. Obama on the tarmac, one donor to Mr. Romney asked, suggesting that physical proximity to the president was out of line. How could you have boarded the presidential helicopter for a tour of the shore? Apparently party leaders and donors really expected Mr. Christie to refuse to meet the president at a time when his state was suffering. They wanted him to reflect their own pettiness — so obvious in the last four years — and shun the hand dispensing federal aid.

We have previously been critical of some of Mr. Christie’s shortsighted actions as governor, but it was hard not to admire him for standing up to his party’s worst elements and putting his state first.

 

It sounds like the reason the Republicans lost

was "If you aren't a Republican - you are the enemy."

[robaus]

Watching the putz on the Thai News when he arrived, he said "Burma"...I still often say Burma but I am

not the Prez and a world leader...

 

The usage of Myanmar is quite controversial... the military dictatorship's attempt to change the brand name while they were changing the constitution. http://en.wikipedia..../Names_of_Burma

 

[gobbledonk]

This is entertaining.....

 

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

 

Little wonder Canberra is cosying up to China.

[Flashermac]

The usage of Myanmar is quite controversial... the military dictatorship's attempt to change the brand name while they were changing the constitution. http://en.wikipedia..../Names_of_Burma

 

 

I knew a few older Thais who refused to use the name Thailand, which was ordered by the less-than-democratic government of Field Marshall Pibunsongkram in 1939. They still called the country Siam.

[unit731]

"Four years after the auto industry started trembling at the real prospect of a global fuel shortage, painful pump prices and consumers clamoring for vehicles that can deliver 50 mpg, this news arrives from the International Energy Agency in France: There's way more oil under America than we realized.

 

Oops.

 

The energy agency, a leading source for long-range energy resource forecasting, reckons that by 2020 -- thanks to the controversial practice of drilling for oil with water pressure -- the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest oil producer. Who knew?"

 

 

 

LINK

[zzzz]

Drilling for oil with water pressure also produce abundant natural gas, the price of which has been very low lately.