Hey Barack, Press Coverage Ain’t Respect

Aretha sang about it, but Barack can’t find it. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. On every continent, the flashbulbs pop and the ink runs, but President Barack Obama is getting schooled by the world’s leaders and tyrants alike–from Sarkozy to Lulu to Chavez to Kim Jong Il–who clearly neither respect nor fear him or our country. He’s a smooth talker with a nifty teleprompter but they know that he doesn’t carry a “big stick.” Barack is so eager to be liked that he doesn’t understand that it is always better to be feared than to be a buddy. He’s all hat, no cattle.

France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, whose unhappiness was recorded by American Girl in Italy on April 6th, objected to Obama’s rude commentary on how Europe should treat its Muslims. On Friday, newspapers reported that Sarkozy finds Obama “inexperienced,” and also said this:

Mr Sarkozy voiced concerns that Obama was “not up to standard” in terms of his decision-making or his efficiency. Mr Sarkozy did praise Obama as being “very intelligent and very charismatic” but said there were certain areas in which Obama “did not have a position.”

Now we have Hugo Chavez brazenly strutting up to Obama and handing him a book — clearly a symbolic gesture indicating that Hugo doesn’t think that Barack is very informed.

The title of the book that Hugo gave Barack is Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.

Some smartie on MSNBC suggested that Barack give him one of his own books. Uh. How does a book about Obama’s ME ME ME begin to compare to a scholarly treatise on five centuries of European domination of Latin America?

Here’s the raw press pool report via Time’s Mark Halperin (who knew that pool reports were really this raw):

“I have a lot to learn and I’m very much looking forward to listening,” POTUS says. ^* [SEE FOOTNOTE.]

He is seated at the head of a U-shaped table, with the leader of Chile to his right. Chavez was all the way to his left, at the far end of the U. Your pooler asked if he had gotten any reaction from the other leaders to his speech. “We’ll find out right now.”

There was a terrible din outside from pushy camera crews trying to get in. POTUS acknowledged the ruckus –u will get a transcript. When the pool entered the room Chavez was busy talking to other leaders. Then Obama spoke, and as the pool was being ushered out Chavez walked over to him. Obama stood up and Chavez handed him the book The book is :

Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina
By eduardo Galeano

(The Open Veins of Latin America). A helpful Chilean delegate who did not want to be named described it as an academic book that is the basis for the 60s-era “dependency theory” that latin america depends on the north.

The North Koreans are so not worried about Obama that they’ve merrily done away with every bit of progress that the Bush administration accomplished (admittedly not nearly enough), and are gleefully shooting rockets into the air with the knowledge they have NOTHING to fear for doing so. Kim is beside himself with gaiety:

(Learn more about Kim Jong Il and his “wocket” at TheNoseOnYourFace.com. H/T Potfry.)

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^*FOOTNOTE:
RE: “‘I have a lot to learn and I’m very much looking forward to listening’, POTUS says.”

Dear President Obama:

You know, it is not necessary to point out your ignorance. We who’ve had the sad task of closely following your every move area intimately familiar with your lack of knowledge and qualifications. Unfortunately, all the world’s leaders are similarly informed.

Furthermore, it’s flat-out embarrassing to us U.S. citizens who take pride in leaders who know what they’re doing and have also read and studied global foreign policy for years. Like Hillary Clinton, for example.

Modesty has its virtues. But we remain the world’s only superpower, and in that there is in superpower status an intrinsic, essential power that we must protect for the good that it can do, for the destruction it can prevent, and for the threats that it can authoritatively issue or carry out.

Keep your ignorance to yourself, please. It’s bad enough that they all know you’re clueless. You needn’t draw attention to your deficits.

We must also remain somewhat fearsome because then, and only then, will despots listen to us. You are “greenlighting” the world’s dictators that they can continue their despotic, cruel ways with impunity!

Here’s an example. Can you please SKIP the warm gesture of a hand on Chavez’s arm and that silly grin?

And here’s Jake Tapper, one of the few reporters who doesn’t feel compelled to suck it up all the time, who describes how you reacted when Chavez walked over and handed you the book:

At President Obama’s meeting with the heads of South American countries this morning, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood, walked over to him, and presented him with a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano.

Obama politely posed for a photograph with Chavez, shook his hand, and accepted the gift.

WHY???

Fellow NoQuarter Regulars: HOW WOULD YOU HAVE REACTED if Chavez had handed you a book? That book?

For starters, I doubt you’d have shaken his hand and posed for a photograph. Had I been Obama, I might have stood up, to show the advantage of my height, taken the book but not extended my hand. I wouldn’t have smiled either since it was obviously another typical Chavez stunt — which anyone with a clue would instantly recognize. One would avoid being duped into willing participation.

Jake Tapper also reports:

The copy of the book Chavez gave Obama appears to be in Spanish, a language Obama does not speak.

At the start of the first plenary session at the Summit of the Americas later this morning, President Obama was asked what he thought of Chavez’s gift.

“You know, I thought it was one of Chavez’s books," Obama answered. "I was going to give him one of mine.”

Hello? If the book is in Spanish, it’s clearly intended as an insult.

CALLING LARRY JOHNSON (who knows so much about how to behave in diplomatic settings that he teaches the subject): Larry, can you instruct this doofus in how to behave with dignity and how to avoid such trickery?

LARRY: Can you also show him how to make himself look a bit more like a powerful leader, rather than a subservient, please-be-my-friend, babe-in-the-woods chump?

The post-superpower meme might be fashionable in the salons of Fareed Zakaria and Charlie Rose but it’s downright embarrassing to most American citizens that our president behaves like a subservient, unskilled, gawkish capitulator.