Obama often succeeds by some part sincerity and some part sales ability. I'll leave it up to anyone else to figure the percentages.
But I was rather struck by reading this account of the President trying to do his balance act with his children in Ghana:
In a television interview with CNN last month, Mr. Obama described the visit to the slave port in Ghana as an opportunity to explain to Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, how "people were willing to degrade others because they appeared differently."
In the interview, the president said he tried to get his girls to "engage in the imaginative act of what it would be like if they were snatched away from Mom and Dad and sent to some place they had never seen before."
"But, you know, part of what you also try to do with kids is to get them to imagine themselves on the other side, as being the slave merchant," Mr. Obama said. "And get them to — to make sure that they are constantly asking themselves questions about whether they are treating people fairly and — and whether they are examining their own behavior and how it affects others."
http://www.nytimes.com/... Now, I have no idea what one could expect from the varied educational levels of Malia & Sasha. But it almost bespeaks a caricature of the Obama tendency to look at the opposition point of view. (His personal physician has said as much recently)
Here you have the Obama children confronting this terrible part of their heritage, and the Lesson Teacher (as opposed to a Decider)asking them to imagine themselves as being the slave merchant.
Did the children's thoughts immediately go to Harry Reid?
(I had to do that)
But seriously......
What's a kid to think? They had to put food on their families?
They thought they were superior, and deserved to exploit others?
This is what keeps trade and an economy, and an economic elite, going?
Maybe it's more like Geitner & Schwarzenegger?
Next lesson, Malia & Sasha:
Israeli police have evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.
Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately. The US has urged Israel to abandon plans for a building project in the area.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognised by the world community.
The evictions have been condemned by the United Nations, the Palestinians and also the UK government.
The US said the evictions were not in keeping with Israel's obligations under the so-called "road map" to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
And the communities had been there prior to the 1967 annexation:
Residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, composed of 28 Palestinian families, held a press conference on May 6 in order to raise awareness regarding the Israeli District Court decision to issue an ultimatum to the al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families giving them 10 days to evacuate their homes or face punitive measures, including forcible expulsion.
Maher Hanoun, one of 53 family members of the two families affected by the court decision said in a statement: "The al Ghawi and al Hanoun cases are part of an ongoing attempt by the two Jewish settler organisations to take over 28 housing units built in 1956 to house refugees and to turn it into a Jewish colony.
Malia & Sasha have a hell of a lot of homework.
So do we.
For this week, you must write how some comparisons are not apt.
You can't raise a toast to everyone.