Barack Obama returns home to a chorus of criticism from the raw red meat Right over his conduct during the Summit of the Americas. In fact, the raw meat Right has greeted the president with negative reviews of all his trips abroad when representing a new and improved America. Despite the worldview that this president is turning a new page in America’s style of leadership and said page is leading to a chapter of cooperation in meeting common challenges and achieving common goals, the raw red meat Right is still persisting in efforts to make the president look wrong for making America look better.
The Fox News flunkies and others of their ilk went with out of their way to use terms like “appeaser in chief” or “apologist in charge” to describe President Obama’s method of recasting the nation’s image. Speaking frankly and openly of past American conduct when dealing with other nations, the president frequently acknowledges our flawed decisions and actions.
He has in so many words stated we have been a nation drunk with power and not ashamed to flaunt it. What many in the past called an American swagger was in truth an American stagger.
Perhaps what President is doing is simply telling the world that we have been addicted to more than just Arab oil and Mexican dope. The president is telling the world that we have been addicted to power. He is articulating what everybody already knows but many refuse to verbalize; that we let a few in this country overdose on power to the degree that America even stooped to torturing people and began eroding the rights of it’s own citizens.
If President Obama is indeed taking the country through a very public twelve step program then it makes perfect sense to follow his line of thinking to its nth degree. The first step in curing any addiction is admitting you have a problem. This administration is very carefully, deliberately and for some, very painfully cleaning up the country’s dirty laundry and airing it’s ugly secrets for a full fresh start.
While many on the right charge the president for appearing weak for his efforts, we think this unique approach represents this country as a strong nation. A nation strong enough to play by the rules and admit it when we have ourselves broken them. No longer content to hiding behind a shroud of lies where no country on the planet could trust America or voluntarily respect us for anything more than a military threat, Obama is offering partnerships for a more peaceful coexistence.
Rather than trouncing the globe with the “we are number one rhetoric“, “we are the richest, the smartest and most productive people around,” this president appears to be leading from a state of realism. Besides, all that rhetoric is rather difficult to live up to or back up when the homeless population is growing, when one in five American children will experience homelessness, when millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed, when millions have no health care, and especially when we are in debt up to our asses to the Chinese. Hell by just being so deep in debt alone, says the Chinese have managed their nation’s wealth far better than we have.
No, our president didn’t respond to Daniel Otega’s rant of America’s past history, nor did the president disregard Hugo Chaves’ overtures for friendship, he simply let them have their due say. President Obama let his critics vent for whatever modest gains they could derive from their statements and moved on. At the end of the Summit, President Obama looked the bigger man and his few international critics were left with fewer criticism.
All nations are to be treated equally is the message of the Obama administration. This is a message that will resonate around the world. This is a message that all will buy into. This is a message that will make more friends than enemies. Click here to download Podcast http://retrovisionmedia.com/...