The past seven and a half years have been demonstrative of the present administration's disdain for everything not Bush, including the judgment of leaders of nations around the world and the will of the its citizens. In the stead of diplomacy and cooperation, this Administration has turned to Madison Avenue styled PR to brainwash/hype/sell everything from the 'Coalition of the Willing' to 'death taxes'.
Yesterday, America may have jumped an ocean of sharks when CentCom attempted to propagandize clarify the der Spiegel article of Maliki in agreement with Obama and the 16 month timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Unfortunately for right wing machine upholders masquerading as reporters, unless Murdoch establishes a worldwide media conglomerate with the legislative bodies of European and Middle Eastern nations passing laws that allow FCCs of those nations to pave the way for Murdoch Media Monopolies planet wide, their mantras, sloganeering and advertisements will not hold. The globe has voted and Obama has won in a landslide victory.
It is difficult for me to not depart from my moral upbringing for forgiveness and empathy as I watch the Republican machine die a writhing and awful death. I have never witnessed what I can't help but characterize as a fitting, cancerous, painstakingly slow but deserved demise by those who would do anything to wield power. It is the stuff of literature, the denouement retribution exacted upon the antagonist by his own actions. In this case, the Republican machine, not to be confused with my Republican neighbors in my childhood home of Old Hickory, TN or adult residences of Orlando and now Baltimore, withers under the weight of the violation of morality, decency, goodwill and rule of law. My Republican neighbors struggle with rectifying their values with the excesses of this administration, its deficit spending, its characterization of the economy despite the reality of their gas, food and everyday cost increases and the scandals too numerous to name and come to grips with.
Marching orders were given to the desperate and clinging Beltway punditocracy to go out and charge that hill. Without being a part of a single phone call, email, or watching a single Sunday talk show, I can easily surmise the solitary missive ushered from the post-Rovian bunker where the next generation of Regent University Rovlicants, flawed by improper replication and John Yoo influence. That missive, the liberal media and their love fest with Obama, 114 to 48 minutes of coverage and Brian Williams didn't accompany McCain when he went on his serious fact-finding mission as opposed to Obama's media tour to attempt to give him foreign policy bona fides.
Transcriptionist John Klass in the Chicago Tribune:
So it was reported last week that since June, the network news spent a thin 48 minutes covering crusty Republican Sen. John McCain, and 114 glorious minutes covering the cool guy they love, the liberal Democrat, Illinois' own Sen. Barack Obama.
It was also announced that the anchors for ABC, NBC and CBS are planning to follow Obama overseas, on his risky trip to Afghanistan, Israel, Germany and to Iraq, now presumably safer after the surge Obama opposed. These same networks virtually ignored McCain on his trip to Iraq.
Transcriptionist Howard Kurtz via Midday Open Thread
Obama's excellent adventure. Katie, Charlie and Brian are all headed across the Atlantic as a frenzy builds over the Democratic candidate's trip. Is this another love fest in the making? And why do the networks barely cover McCain's international travel?
Unfortunately, after years of constructing the most convoluted and tortured scaffolds to nowhere, the Broder fraternity can no longer turn it on and be effective. After years of threat level orange, "the sky is falling" and vote Democrat Party if you want another 9/11, the metaphors are failing, an immunity to their venom strengthens, the center cannot hold. And fortunately, around the globe, the Bizarro fantasy of this administration has shattered. The globe has spoken and Obama has won a landslide victory.
From The Independent - John Rentoul: Obama, the most dominant force in British politics
Who is the dominant figure in British politics today? His name was invoked by the Prime Minister in his news conference on Monday. "I agree with him entirely," said Gordon Brown. He was praised as "brave" and "right" by David Cameron on Wednesday. Both hope to be photographed with him in London this week.
I speak of Barack Obama, a phenomenon of politics not just in America but across the English-speaking world and beyond. Plainly, he is an exceptional candidate, although, like the prophets, he is even more exceptional outside his own land. Opinion polls in the US have him only four percentage points ahead of John McCain. Over here, on the other hand, a poll last week among people who can't vote for either man found Obama trouncing McCain by a five-to-one margin.
Also in the Independent - Brown plans to withdraw troops as he backs Obama over 'war on terror'
Gordon Brown prepared the ground for a historic realignment in the "war on terror" yesterday by setting out a four-point plan for withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by the end of next year.
Although he is refusing to set a detailed timetable for withdrawal, it is clear Mr Brown is in agreement with the US presidential candidate Barack Obama on the need for military action in Afghanistan to take priority. Both appear to be working to a 16-month timetable.
From Agence France-Presse - Obamania grips Europe ahead of visit by "John Kennedy of our time"
Obamania is all the rage ahead of next week's visit to Berlin, Paris and London by a man described in newspapers as a "John Kennedy of our time" and Europe's champion in the race for the White House.
...
Seventy percent of Italians, 67 percent of Germans, 65 percent of the French and 49 percent of Britons would vote Obama.
This compared to just 15 percent in Italy, 6 percent in Germany, 8 percent in France, and 14 percent in Britain for Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, whose support for the war in Iraq is seen as a continuation of the policy of the current White House tenant, George W. Bush.
National leaders, reporters and editorial boards and citizens worldwide have also weighed in on two of the largest issues affecting the globe as it intersects with American foreign policy, namely Iraq and Iran and how Obama is viewed in light of these issues.
The Guardian has reported a far reaching change in U.S. policy:
The US plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years as part of a remarkable turnaround in policy by President George Bush.
The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section - a halfway house to setting up a full embassy. The move will see US diplomats stationed in the country.
From Der Spiegel:
There is little Europe can quarrel with in the broad thrust of the national security strategy set out by Mr Obama in a speech in Washington this week. Most Europeans, if not governments, opposed the Iraq war and will applaud a commitment to careful US withdrawal.
The policy of engagement with adversaries (Iran) is one Europeans old and new have long urged on President George W. Bush. Energy security and climate change are European priorities. The war in Afghanistan, albeit lacking clear strategic purpose, has international legitimacy. Mr Obama was also nice about the United Nations and spoke intelligently of military might as only one dimension of US power.
Of course, looming on my recent timeline horizon is the disgrace that was our disdain and treatment of those that disagreed with our Iraq policy. My enthusiasm with this sliver of, dare I say it, hope is counterbalanced by the lingering rabid jingoism, continued blame of others, refusal to acknowledge the truth and memories of "freedom fries." It was just yesterday that Bill O'Reilly was issuing unabashed threats at the end of each show for those who wouldn't get on board once "America decided to go to war" as if we decided. It was just yesterday that a mob stood ready to march Natalie Maines to the gallows while radio stations called for book burning pyres of her CDs We struggle back from the brink even while still imprisoning 'enemy combatants' indefinitely without evidence, family notice or legal recourse, extraordinary rendition, the plague of signing statements and the assassination of the rule of law. I can only hope that we can muster the individual and collective energy to do our part as citizens to return America, not to some global position that opposition believes left-wing, ultra liberals crave who "blame America first" as the Hannitys desperately parrot, but to the rule of law and away from the mutinous treachery of Nixonian degenerates.