Krauthammer Once Again Confronts Obama on Reframing History
By Ani on June 14, 2009 at 11:00 AM in Barack Obama, Obama's Characteristics, Obamaisms, Pandering, President Barack Obama
Even when I don’t agree with Charles Krauthammer, I so enjoy reading him. But his latest WaPo commentary on the President, entitled Obama Hovers From on High is spot on. Few columnists or commentators (well, except us, of course, ahem) came to the conclusion as early or called Mr. Obama out on the carpet as often for his narcissism, moral relativism and use of revisionist history as well as Mr. Krauthammer:
When President Obama returned from his first European trip, I observed that while over there he had been “acting the philosopher-king who hovers above the fray mediating” between America and the world. Now that Obama has returned from his “Muslim world” pilgrimage, even the left agrees. “Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world. He’s sort of God,” Newsweek’s Evan Thomas said to a concurring Chris Matthews, reflecting on Obama’s lofty perception of himself as the great transcender.
Not that Obama considers himself divine. (He sees himself as merely messianic, or, at worst, apostolic.) But he does position himself as hovering above mere mortals, mere country, to gaze benignly upon the darkling plain beneath him where ignorant armies clash by night, blind to the common humanity that only he can see. Traveling the world, he brings the gospel of understanding and godly forbearance. We have all sinned against each other. We must now look beyond that and walk together to the sunny uplands of comity and understanding. He shall guide you.
Poetry in motion, Mr. K. Here is one of many examples he offers of President Obama’s dangerous moral equivalencies:
(C) Obama offered Muslims a careful admonition about women’s rights, noting how denying women education impoverishes a country — balanced, of course, with this: “Issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam.” Example? “The struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life.”
Well, yes. On the one hand, there certainly is some American university where the women’s softball team has received insufficient Title IX funds — while, on the other hand, Saudi women showing ankle are beaten in the street, Afghan school girls have acid thrown in their faces, and Iranian women are publicly stoned to death for adultery. (Gays, as well — but then again we have Prop 8.) We all have our shortcomings, our national foibles. Who’s to judge?
That’s the problem with Obama’s transcultural evenhandedness. It gives the veneer of professorial sophistication to the most simple-minded observation: Of course there are rights and wrongs in all human affairs. Our species is a fallen one. But that doesn’t mean that these rights and wrongs are of equal weight.
A CIA rent-a-mob in a coup 56 years ago does not balance the hostage-takings, throat-slittings, terror bombings and wanton slaughters perpetrated for 30 years by a thug regime in Tehran (and its surrogates) that our own State Department calls the world’s “most active state sponsor of terrorism.”
(snip)
Even on freedom of religion, Obama could not resist the compulsion to find fault with his own country: “For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation” — disgracefully giving the impression to a foreign audience not versed in our laws that there is active discrimination against Muslims, when the only restriction, applied to all donors regardless of religion, is on funding charities that serve as fronts for terror.
And here Mr. Krauthammer sums it up perfectly:
For all of his philosophy, the philosopher-king protests too much. Obama undoubtedly thinks he is demonstrating historical magnanimity with all these moral equivalencies and self-flagellating apologetics. On the contrary. He’s showing cheap condescension, an unseemly hunger for applause and a willingness to distort history for political effect.
But this is not the first time President Obama has engaged in this dangerous revisionism, or given a foreign country a pass on their behavior so as to appear warm and fuzzy.
Last summer, I wrote an article, The Panderer Forgets The Panzers, commenting on then-nominee Barack Obama’s speech before the German people in front of the Victory Column (the Siegessäule) in Berlin:
“The Siegessäule in Berlin was moved to where it is now by Adolf Hitler. [Hitler] saw it as a symbol of German superiority…in wartime.
(snip)
Let us put location aside for the moment. His speech, which contains positive and positively vague concepts for how we must work to tear all walls down as part of the global community, is the usual pabulum; fine as far as it goes. No specifics are offered, just a photo op for Obama to enjoy adulation and applause of thousands for clearing his throat.What is not fine is this statement:
People of the world – look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.
“On the field of battle?” That sounds so honorable! Like two worthy adversaries fighting over a plot of land or a political principle. Look at Berlin, indeed.
His feel good moment designed to pander to his current audience, just as he seeks to pander to any audience for whom he performs, conveniently omits the harsh reality that we were not battling an honorable adversary. We were battling Nazi Germany. You remember: the people responsible for exterminating millions of Jews.
How nice of Senator Obama to leave out any mention of the Holocaust so he wouldn’t make the German people gathered for “Obamafest” feel bad, while vendors were busy selling souvenir buttons depicting him in lederhosen holding a bunch of beer steins.
Instead he chooses to dwell on the Berlin Wall and raised the specter of the Cold War. He makes the Russian people the bad guys in this equation for splitting up Berlin and making half of it communist – suddenly the ‘Wall’ is the culprit. Yes, but surely, there were other culprits.He fails to mention in his speech that the Russians were allied with the United States against the Germans – the true enemy in World War II.
Obviously, as the child of a Holocaust survivor it is important to me that this fact not be forgotten. Although my father could never forgive the German people, even at the time of his death, I vowed I would never live a life carrying old hatred with me. I would not make his legacy mine. So let me be clear, it is certainly not hatred for the German people living today that prompts my statements; quite the contrary.
The present world will never be able to apologize for the past one.
Nevertheless, I will not excuse revisionist history for the convenience of Obama crafting a sound bite around the concept of “walls coming down.” He cannot omit the fact that the Soviets did fight by our side in this cause. The Soviet tanks he complains of in his speech were also used against the Nazis.
Senator Obama also conveniently forgets how many concentration camps were liberated by the Soviets, including the largest concentration camp of all, Auschwitz – the one that Obama falsely claimed his uncle helped to liberate when he was, again, pandering to a Jewish audience a couple of months ago.
Whatever Russia’s motives, the fact remains that they were very instrumental in breaking Hitler’s back and bringing a faster end to the war – a fact it is most inappropriate for Obama to forget simply because it does not coincide with the narrative of his pretty platitudes.
Once again, Obama works to make his current audience feel comfortable, forgiving them any past transgressions…
On June 4, 2009, when visiting Buchenwald concentration camp, Barack Obama, by his remarks, rebuked Iran and its leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his repeated insistence that the Holocaust did not happen. President Obama, at that moment, was able to muster all sorts of sorrow and horror over the Holocaust – which was ironically missing from all or any part of his speech before the German people the year before. Most unfortunately, what this says to me is that he is willing to re-craft sound bites and emotions for a political purpose that suits him best at the moment. Obviously, standing at Buchenwald, what suited the purpose is to try to isolate surrounding countries from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and make the man as unpopular as possible. Great idea. However, The horrors Mr. Obama discussed that day were no less horrible the year before when, for political purposes, he completely chose to omit them from his speech.
It is most disturbing that President Obama is continuing this pattern in Cairo and elsewhere, redrafting history to suit his immediate political purpose.
As Mr. Krauthammer correctly concludes:
Distorting history is not truth-telling but the telling of soft lies. Creating false equivalencies is not moral leadership but moral abdication. And hovering above it all, above country and history, is a sign not of transcendence but of a disturbing ambivalence toward one’s own country.
(Release: November 13)
on sale for only $16.95.
has a spatula.)
8% Off at $11.95, with a rare five-star ranking by 294 customers: 
And check out these: 
("This crazy redhead is on to something. Her pink Rambler story alone is worth the price of the book," writes 
- “Richard Sale’s reportage on Washington, the CIA, the American armed forces, and foreign intrigue has created a perfect background for this account of the steady growth of President Clinton as a master of the game of nations.”--W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East Operations, DIA
"Anne C. Heller's stunning biography of Ayn Rand" uses a "plethora of newly unearthed research and fresh insight."
Ani,
Wow! I had just finished reading Krauthammer’s “Hovering on High” in the opinion section of our local paper. I came here to see if anyone here had picked it up because I, too, felt it was “spot on.” Thanks for your additional comments to further Krauthammer’s points.
I am still in shock that “that one” was placed in the position he’s in. I guess I shouldn’t be. I have watched the erosion of history education in the schools and the rise of the attitude in raising children in this country that makes it seem as if someone’s little hang nail problem is equally as important as the problem another may have from being beaten.
Is there hope that we can pull out of this moral quagmire in our country?
I had just read CK and came here to see whether his column would appear, too! CK is one of the few columnists I have gone back to reading. But then, I decided to take a look at the comments… On the good side, apparently only BO’s most zealous and uneducated supporters defend him against CK’s charges. On the bad side, what if these are not the paid bloggers, and represent the disturbing mindset we are up against?
Ani great read. I would have missed this one.
Krauthammer is the smartest man in Washington D.C. without question
I agree with you about Mr Krauthammer. He is quite eloquent. My favorite line is:
“That’s the problem with Obama’s transcultural evenhandedness. It gives the veneer of professorial sophistication to the most simple-minded observation:…” Indeed!!
And I like his conclusion too. But getting to be very cynical in my old age, I have to conclude further that the power brokers who annointed Barack Obama as the 44th POTUS expect him to create moral equivalences because they themselves are amoral; and, furthermore, if Obama hovers transcendingly above it all, it is because “they” want him to…afterall, Obama is a citizen of the world. We are all citizens of the world. Thinking like that is the only way we are going to save the planet…right, Ms Pelosi? Besides what can anyone expect rhetorically when some adolescent is writing the speeches.
Excellent article, Ani, as always. I still hate it when I have to agree with Krauthammer, but the battle-lines are now criss-crossing in unpredictable ways, and his analysis in this case is very compelling.
Many writers and commenters on this blog and others have berated Thee One for ascending on wings of lofty but airy and empty rhetoric to hover godlike over the battlefields of mere struggling humanity. I’m not going to reprise these charges at length.
What I do want to remind Mr. O is that he is the President of the United States of America and not the Messiah who was anointed to save the whole world. He was hired by us to look out for our best interests. Don’t hover, Mr. President, get down to Earth, the United States of America specifically, and speak for us, bargain for us, be on our side first and foremost. This country has longstanding ideals, and they are noble and worth fighting for. Fight for OUR ideals and don’t compromise them in the process of trying to placate our enemies. They did not hire you. We did, and you are OUR employee. Don’t hover, and don’t bow.
I too enjoyed Krauthammer’s column.
My wish is we have a country left once BO is out of office. And he should take Nacy and Harry with him. They are his lap dogs in human form.
Admin, Almighty Spam Filter condemned my innocent post. Please retrieve.
Ari – I look forward to Krauthammer’s columns every week. He is the smartest columnist in D.C.
he says it like it is not like the rest of them..
What is it about some people? I’ve really always hated those people who take the position of “mediator” and “arbitrator” in discussions, disputes or debates–even when there is no authoritative reason for them to have that role.
They have some sort of personality type or something; a compulsion to always claim a certain condescending moral high ground by NOT taking any position except the position of not taking a position, so they can assume some sort of sanctimonious superiority. Most times other people don’t notice, and go along with the game; I always notice it and am annoyed by it.
Well, that’s Obama; the sanctimonious personality type who always gravitates toward the position which gives him the supposed “moral high ground” by not taking a clear position on any issue, except the professorial philosophe. It’s incredibly arrogant to me.
Krauthammer is a psychiatrist, so I guess he’s well aware of this personality/behavioral archetype. In Obama’s case, it’s definitely narcissistic personality. Good for CK for calling Obama on it.
Those people have no balls, because it takes courage and fortitude to hold to a single position whereas it takes none to pander to every one.
Great read Ani. CK is one of the more intelligent writers in DC. I am sure the Obama political machinery will go after him.
A friend of mine said that it is easy to be an Obama worshipper if you do not have enough knowledge of history.
This morning checking what is new on , canadafreepress.com, I find, a very intresting article;WHY COMMANDER FITSPATRICK IS NOT GUILTY OF MUTINY, by J.B.Williams. In the end of his article, the writer, for proving his point of view highlighted a few points. In my opinion one of his key evidence is,# 2, Soetoro,s divorce, cf.document 994006/1980. Actually he gave 6 outlines. The proof is there,even no one from our Government want to follow it.
Interesting reading, Lisabona. I know it’s Cnada free press, but do you know if the writer is American?
Another great piece Ani!
Even Bill Maher is starting to crack http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-maher12-2009jun12,0,7966784.st
Enough With Obamanation
If Maher can separate his belief that Obama is really a closet atheist and see the light-and it’s starting- can the others be far behind?
Yes, good stuff. Ani covered it yesterday with great response: http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2009/06/13/bill-maher-complains-about-obama-%E2%80%93-chicken-little-the-sky-has-truly-fallen/
I always found it so ironic that Maher — a proud atheist — went for Obama, the Savior.
Yes, trixta. Guess he was “blinded by the light”:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2557329272_798ee77d9e.jpg?v=0
Ewww, not fair, oowawa – you should have warned it had an “R” rating (Repulsive)
Regarding Maher…”When you believe in Nothing, you will believe Anything.”
looks like potus is losing his mojo…
In keeping with the mode of discourse Maher established on his show…Maher reminds me of my brother…little weenie, big mouth.
Thanks so much for posting, Ani. Krauthammer is very good–he makes very valid points.
as i see it, obama gives the same speech over and over. he simply changes the details. his attitude before and after the election is the same. i am superior to the rest of you mortals. i am biracial and the answer to racial issues. (hehei am really stir it up). i am against the iraq war (after that i was for it). i shall tell the world america is sorry(they don’t care, barry)
yes, indeedy, aren’t i just the most splendid thing you’ll ever see. even my dog is named for me. and michelle, why her clothes sense makes jackie look like a street urchin.
grandiose, lacking in critical thinking skills, naive, and dangerous describes obama to me.
Hmmm, praise for Charle Krauthammer, the one whose name actually contains a racial slur….well, whatever, in this topsy turvey time I guess no rules hold.
But I do agree that “Teh One” matches his rhetoric to his audience, and is all about the applause.
Thank you Ani, I appreciate you bringing this article to our attention. I am also a fan of Krauthammer. Didn’t Krauthammer win a award for his writing recently?
Ani — you never disappoint with your posts! Always thoughtful and thought-provoking for us. I didn’t know who Dr. Krauthammer was until ast year when I saw him as a commenter on various cable networks. I was always impressed by his calm, well-spoken statements, especially when up against rabid Obama supporters. Because of who and what he is, I hope his words will carry more weight with those who are beginning to see their idol’s feet of clay.
“A disturbing ambivalence toward one’s own country” indeed!
Ani, I concur – another excellent post!
As you probably know, I have really come to respect CK’s commentaries on a number of issues since the last election season. Even if I don’t completely agree with everything (though I do in this case), his thoughtfulness and even handedness make him a pundit to take seriously indeed.
Thanks again – along with your Maher piece yesterday, you are on FIRE!!
Krauthammer has been pretty spot on about Obama over the last year +. I may not share all his political views but he is far and away one of the most thoughtful and intelligient analysts out there. Thanks for the essay, Ani. This moral and cultural equivalency stance is not new nor original to Obama. This is what is being taught in major universities throughout the country and you frequently stumble over it in daily interaction.
I recently had an experience in a discussion group where members read a particular essay in which the poverty of a young Peruvian woman was turned into a happy romantic tale. I found the essay lightweight, one that left the author, a young male student, off the hook. No need to dig very deep if we can turn everything in a fairytale.
One member said that my comments made me sound “culturally superior” and that there was merit in simply accepting the woman’s poverty and subservient position and find some good in that.
Again, I say bullshit. There’s nothing romantic about poverty or the plight of women around the world. Fairytales, the santitized version we’re accustomed to, are for children. And things will never change if we merely smile and nod and pretend that there’s merit in terrible situations.
Obama is a schoolmaster for this false premise. Small lies add up to only one thing: The Big Lie.
And sadly, that’s what we’re living now.
Peggy Sue
You’re absolutely correct about this moral relativism being taught in colleges. It’s also rampant in public schools. At the least the essay writer attempted a half-way serious topic.
I used to teach freshman essay writing. It was so painful–the lack of interest in any serious, moral, political, philosophical thinking.
I quit when I knew that the next essay I received on bad dorm food or on the evils of having to get up early for a morning class might send me into a nervous breakdown. It was considered wrong to think these topics didn’t matter much in the scheme of things because, as the students would whine: “It matters to ME, ME, ME.”
Krauthammer lifts the veil on the cheap plastic messiah – Obamaphiles must be quivering at the thought!
Pay attention. Krauthammer is teaching those who pay attention about the inner workings of a person with mental health issues.
Now, what was that rumor about Obama being diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia in the “80’s?
I just love how Krauthammer so blithely gets away with his implication that Muslim charity organizations are fronts for terrorist activity. (Read his “defense” of US rules on charity donations.) The simple truth that Krauthammer ignores is that Muslim charities have been forced to prove a negative–that their donations do not go to “terrorist” organizations.
I’d like a list of US Christian (and Jewish) organizations that have been forced to turn over their books to ensure that none of their monies have gone to terrorist organizations. What’s that you say? Christian and Jewish charities don’t donate to terrorists? Well, how do you know without checking into it? Muslim charities were specifically targeted AND investigated based SOLELY on their religious affiliation. That IS “discrimination”, no matter how Mr Krauthammer wants to deny it.
So, I’d have to say that Krauthammer actually validated Obama’s comment.
And Ani, regarding Krauthammer’s being “spot on”, what’s the idiom about a stopped clock? It clearly applies to Mr Charles “Dubya-is-my-hero-no-matter-what-he-did-and-I’ll-only-attack-him-in-public-when-I-can-make-more-money-that-way” Krauthammer. I get this constant “pile on Obama” mentality here (I’m still not fond of Obama and would’ve much rather had Hillary) but when you lie down with dogs, don’t be surprised if you get fleas. Just because you like something that Krauthammer writes, don’t let it blind you to the fact that this man is no stranger to revisionist history. (His comment about the “CIA rent-a-mob” for instance was hilarious. Do you think Krauthammer would suggest that the Holocaust should be ignored simply because it happened so long ago? It’s funny how ISRAEL can use a past incident to justify that country’s treatment of the Palestinians–especially when Israeli independence was due to both Western guilt over the Holocaust and Jewish terrorist activity against the British. I suppose it’s only revisionist when someone else does it.)
First of all, for you to claim you were a Hillary supporter has been refuted by just about every post you’ve made here. (Pandering is a bit more difficult when the audience is actually aware of the subject, isn’t it?)
For you to simplify the history of Israel in such terms is insulting to anyone who’s actually taken the time to do any reading about the establishment and protection of the state of Israel. Do you, for an example, know that within hours of declaring as an independent state, Israel was attacked by surrounding countries on multiple fronts? By what right do you declare superior knowledge of this country or its citizens?
As for your comments about discrimination of Muslim based on their donations without basis, again you haven’t done your homework. In Cleveland, Ohio, the Imam of one of the largest Muslim groups in the US was deported a few years ago after it was proven in a court of law that he had been funneling monies to known terrorist groups. He had left a trail that spanned years before his actions were uncovered. Had there been discrimination, don’t you think he would have been put under a microscope by the FBI long ago?
In my opinion, the Krautmammer article does not suffiently explain why he positions himself as a philosopher king, and how that is likely to effect his efficacy as a leader.
In my view, Obama aspires to the role of philosopher king, because he is not a detail man, not a patient man, and not a man willing to immerse himself in the intricacies of problemsolving, the way Hillary and Bill did. The devil is always in the details.
To insulate himself from those details, he has created a dysfunctional bureaucracy, which will adversely affect the decision making processes. Turf wars, and other perverse behaviors are inevitable with this organizational structure. Twenty
czars is twenty too many.
And then of course there is message. By most accounts it is a message of hope to the world. How wonderful is that? But there are hidden messages embedded therein which white audiences do not hear, but operate like a dog whistle to the enemies of our nation and its allies. The question no one asks is where do these signals come from? Echo answereth the Trinity Church, where he spent 20 glorious years absorbing the uplifting message of Reverend Wright.
Through osmossis, those themes are constantly playing in his head. And they come out whenever he ventures on foreign soil. He blames America for its arrogance, just like Wright does. He blames all whites for slavery, just like Wright does. And he blames Israel for the Palestinian problem just like Wright does. And he draws perverse moral equivalencies just like repugnant racist Wright.
Obama has a special place in Wrights little meangerie of satanic verses: he is Black Jesus–who else? And what would you expect Black Jesus to do except what Obama is doing now, which is to say hovering above the world dumping cliches masquerading as wisdom on mere mortals who do not appreciate it. And then of course there are the dog whistle sounds noted above.
Are we to believe this is credible leadership? If so then God help us, because it is a good bet that Black Jesus won’t.
I agree. As a matter of fact in this past week, during his outburst, Wright said Obmama “is my son”. You bet. He is simply regurgitating his adopted daddy’s poisonous rhetoric. It’s ingrained beginning with Mommy Dearest to the Rev. It’s what he knows best.
I read an article last week stating that”feeling bad about yourself” is the underlying factor in narcissism. Poor little orphan Barack. That’s the reason he leads with that huge “false” ego…where the Messiah lives. Sickening.
I can’t even type his name…make that “Obama”.
While Mr. Krauthammer is a keen and insightful observer, I disagree with his interpretation of the approach Obama takes when speaking to foreign Muslim audiences.
Obama is very much aware of the fact that there are mutual barriers of cultural distrust and suspicion that get in the way of truly productive discussion. He understands that you don’t begin to get through such barriers by speaking from an assumed position of moral superiority. Thus his approach isn’t a one-sided You people have serious problems that you need to work out. Instead, it’s We and you have serious problems that we all need to work on; solving those problems is a moral imperative and to everyone’s advantage.
That’s not just good diplomacy and good psychology; it’s also a statement of truth. It’s a difficult sort of truth, because we’re all accustomed to viewing ourselves in a far more favorable light than we view others, and we aren’t at all accustomed to hearing leaders who aren’t speaking as unilateral cheerleaders for our own positions on all things at all times.
It’s easy to interprate this as equivocation, or even as a tendency toward appeasment, and to think that a leader taking this approach might be holding himself (or herself) “above the darkling plain”. I don’t believe any of that is the case. I believe the approach is carefully calculated to get things moving in the direction we need. Only time will reveal if it will work.
May I suggest that you take a sabatical, remove the pro Obama bumper sticker from your car, and think about the osmois which occured during the 20 years Obama spent in the hate America, hate whitey, hate Jews Trinity Church of Christ. Then perhaps you will cease and disist in this multi culturalist drivel. I hate to be the one to tell you this but there is not tooth fairy. And the world does not need black jesus with sermons. The real world needs concrete solutions, which are not in his repertoire.
Concrete solutions? Such as increasing cultural insularity, periodic terrorist attacks in a world of increasingly accessable and dangeous destructive technologies, and periodic outbreaks of open warfare? I don’t think we could afford to continue on down that path, even if we were inclined to do so. It’s the path to our own collapse. Which is why Islamic extremists would like for us to follow it.
0zero is a Narcissistic psychopathic liar — in other words he is a politician.
He likes to look like he is above it all — but he has his droid troll 0bots like yourself to WORM for him.
Grow up 0bot trolls — you are being used. Go get professional help — get out of the cult and stop drinking kool-aid.
It’s not a matter of kool-aid. It’s a matter of having some degree of optimism about a new leader with a different way of looking at the world. I’m burned out on negativity, pessimism, and presumptions of failure–particularly when those pitches are made by those who’s policies have already failed, and who don’t seem to be offering anything much different from before.
Let’s engage in your prescribed method of diplomacy. You have just said: We and you have serious problems that we all need to work on; solving those problems is a moral imperative and to everyone’s advantage.
And I will respond with, Your right so you go work on your problem of unequal funding for women’s softball and women making 12% less then men in the work place problem and let us worry about women who show their ankles being stone to death, girls not being allowed to to to school and when they do they get acid thrown on them problem (even though we dont think it’s a problem because it is a part of our religious convictions) and when you get your problem solved come talk to us about ours. But until then we would appreciate you not engage in your moral and cultural imperialism
Your turn.
Give me a break. I have heard our politicians discuss the wrongs in our society. It’s one thing, however, to point them out in a context in which you know people won’t be jailed or beaten for disagreeing with you. It’s o.k. for them to say these things because they know that discussion and disagreement can happen in a more open society. To point the problems in the U.S. is only adding fuel to rhetoric of the hard-line leaders there. It’s letting them know what a whimp and idiot we have for POTUS.
I believe the hard-line fundamentalist Muslims laughed at his comments. I believe the more Western leaning people in the Middle East were appalled, were dismayed that he would make those comparisons as if the points were equal.
Take the hajib comment about women who “choose” to wear one. It was absolutely crazy: HMMMMM …. should I choose to wear one or should I choose to be jailed and probably beaten badly–or worse–for not wearing one? Can you imagine the women hearing that comment who were absolutely unhappy about having to wear the hajib? I am not sure they were impressed with O’s tactics.
I suspect the hard-liner Islamic fundamentalists liked his comments least of all. To them, this kind of talk is seen as dangerous, because it can connect with those of more moderate inclination. Those are the people who will ultimate represent real solutions.
Consider which factions like Obama the least. They wouldn’t be people such as those Iranians backing Ahmadinejad.
…ultimately…
I am not uneducated about Iran and Ahmadinejad. I still think he was absolutely laughing at O’s comments.
Laughing all the way to the bank – “you won fraudulently, now watch me do it”.
Yes!
Obambi has shown his kindergartenish intellectual capacity for appreciating moral equivalencies by talking about the hijab as a “choice”. Is he such an imbecile that he does not know that women have been stoned and murdered and raped for NOT wearing the hajib? The man is CLUELESS, sexist and dangerous.
Speaking of psychology, isn’t Krauthhamer s Psychiatrist as well as a columnist. So he has more believability when addressing “good psychology” don’t you think.
Yes, Krauthammer is a psychiatrist
makes him more credible in my book..
And he got his MD under harder than usual circumstances. He had a diving accident as a teen and was paralyzed.
I love it! I have always been a big fan of Krauthammer. His reasoning is so spot on. No one wants to take on the Great Pretender. Thank God Charles does.
I’d take anything CK says over anything Obama says.
There’s got to be a reason Obama’s health records are unavailable and me thinks Krauthammer knows why…
As I have being saying since his campaign,
Obama says what he wants you to hear as he lies to
all America because he knows the people are gullable.
Narcissist Obama tells his gullable voters one thing
then does another to fulfill his socialist agenda!!
In the meantime, Obama, Rahm Emanuel and Michelle are in the Oval Office laughing their heads off how
they fooled the people again!!! “WAKE UP AMERICA”
Not that CK doesn’t have his own well-embedded bias and “psycholoigal” dysfunctions (as do all psychiatrists as they hunt for their own demons) and I find him, for the most part, right and wrong – both at the same time on many things.
He nails this – the reframing perfectly … it’s that part of Obama that drives me absolutely insane but not onto the couch of psychiatrists like CK!
As to his insight into BO’s psychological baggage, probably a good guess – diagnosing from afar! After all, his mother and step father did send him off to stay with grammy and pappy (but managed to keep their daughter or at least the father did maybe while mom went off on the Ford Foundations’ dollar to save the women of the world thru macro-economics) and that was after his father impregnated his mother, married her (and he already had another wife and children in Kenya – whom he had abandoned in Kenya) and then abandoned both to the call of Harvard! You want to talk about issues! Talk about constant object relationships and his lack of them as he wandered thru his life doing what was necessary, by any means necessary, trying to get his needs met, and you’ve got the perfect definition of a personality disorder – which one? Could be a choice of several.
But then not much difference than the one in whose footsteps he follows … or even Clinton who certainly came with some of the same “baggage” and manifestions but with different means.
This is a man who couldn’t take time while he was NOT writing his fictional biography (the way he wanted it to be) in Bali to attend his own mother’s death and then again, on the eve of election, couldn’t be at grammy’s bedside. Then there was the sexism and misogyny – politically driven or personal?
It is all about the sponge that can’t suck up enough “love” … and never will be able to … the dark hole within himself that he will never be able to fill no matter how he maniplutes HIS-story. The one that Michelle describes after his crushing loss in an election.
But then all pols are narcissists … it is what makes them who they are … but the more incidious underlying clinical pathological behaviors that vary can be more frightening and dangerous!
Where oh! where did my post go? Oh! crap!
For relief in the future..I’ve got my sights set on Bachman,Sanford & Palin.
I am just curious to know if anyone here thinks Krauthammer held Dubya’s feet to the fire? Srsly, I would like to stop reading headlines that assume this guy is a real journalist.
One of Krauthammer’s best!
Obama’s insidious, morally equivalent rewrite of history channels Orwell’s 1984 with all its doublespeak, newspeak and thought crimes. He and his ultra-liberal phalanxes attempt to bully the world into doublethink. No wonder we all feel crazy.
The new Gallup poll that shows people consider themselves conservative rather than liberal over 2 to 1. And that doesn’t even count the moderates.
Conservatives outnumber liberals, but liberals must be double as bullies, oppressing more moderate voices by their screeching pontification and demands that conservative and moderate voices shut up. Conservatives and moderates had better wake up and find their voices to speak and their opposable thumbs to work hard at standing up to the dangerously confused and manipulative vitriol that’s coming from the radical left.
Not just poor cows and sheep, but we’ll all have glass fart collectors poking from our butts if we don’t do the flea-flicker on these pests. I’m not ready to march in a brown shirt that represents oppression and corruption. And that’s just what we’re getting from every quarter.