Hilarious !! And sad because it's true. President Obama (known as 'my little pony' to Vladimir Putin) is definitely President Flexible!
Charles Krauthammer makes the same point:
Can you imagine the kind of pressure a reelected Obama will put on Israel, the kind of anxiety he will induce from Georgia to the Persian Gulf, the nervousness among our most loyal East European friends who, having been left out on a limb by Obama once before, are now wondering what new flexibility Obama will show Putin — the man who famously proclaimed that the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century was Russia’s loss of its Soviet empire?
They don’t know. We don’t know. We didn’t even know this was coming — until the mic was left open. Only Putin was to know. “I will transmit this information to Vladimir,” Medvedev assured Obama.
Of course, the American people would never know...and that's the point.
And yes, my friends, I question this President's patriotism, especially when I look at his past record, and I suggest you actually take a good look at the ridiculous START Treaty and this little item.
Or at least his elementary common sense, if nothing else.
2 comments:
I'm definitely no fan of Mr. Obama's policies on the whole, however, I don't really see a problem with this other than the fact that the President did not act more prudently to make sure his mic was not "hot."
The media scrutiny on American leaders and want to be American leaders is always intense. It is especially intense during an elections season. Given the media's almost reflexive approach where it takes the side of America's adversaries or potential adversaries, it was going to be problematic, at best, for Mr. Obama to negotiate any agreement that might be in any way favorable to America.
The Russian leadership no doubt understands this. As such, they were likely pushing POTUS and his advisors to negotiate right now when the environoment is more favorable to them.
After the election the media scrutiny, while always intense, will not be quite as much. In this environment, POTUS will have much more flexibility to negotiate an agreement that might be favorable to the US. This is probably why he asked the Russians to hold off on the negotiations now.
This was actually a prudent course of action by Mr. Obama. Not ensuring that the mic was not "hot" before speaking up was not a good course of action.
I've been around people who had a hot mic without realizing it. When this happened, the person was not paying attention to the details they should have been paying attention to.
Negotiations with Russia, arguably the world's most powerful country, are very serious business. To have allowed himself to be caught unawares with a hot mic is indicative of someone who was not paying attention to what he was doing. This type of thing does not seem to be an isolated incident with the man who currently holds the office of POTUS. Unless this changes, it seems unlikely his presidency can have a good outcome.
In summary, asking the Russians to hold off on this until after the election when he can have more flexibility to negotiate was the proper course of action. Not making sure his mic was not "hot" before speaking up was down right dumb.
Any American leader needs to know the long knives of the world's press corps is out to destroy you at any opportunity. All the more reason to be especially careful about what you are saying and doing.
Finally, if another foreign leader espcially one who was an adversary of America had made a simillar error do you really think the media would have run with this they way they did? I think not.
while not being a fan of the series, there was an episode of the west wing that i recall.
the president did an interview where he said something that came across live, it was controversial, but he claimed he didn't know the shot was live and the comment was not for public consumption.
however, as the episode went on you got the distinct impression that the president knew the mic was on and said what he said so he could deny that being policy.
i don't know why president bush did this.
not a typo.
i'm sure that twit anon will tell us why his president bush did this.
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