Richard Tafoya
Apr 20th, 2009, 07:46 PM
Wash. Post Plumline:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/obama-begins-mocking-gop-criticism-of-his-international-outreach/
An interesting, if subtle, shift in Obama’s tone: He’s taken to openly mocking GOP criticism of his willingness to diplomatically engage hostile foreign leaders.
You saw the new tone on display over the weekend, where Obama was questioned by reporters about the widespread GOP criticism of a warm handshake moment he had with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. GOP Senator John Ensign (http://whorunsgov.com/Profiles/John_Ensign), for instance, said (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-americas20-2009apr20,0,3878264.story) it was “irresponsible” to be seen “laughing and joking” with him.
Obama replied (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Conference-By-The-President-In-Trinidad-And-Tobago-4/19/2009/), in part:
Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the United States’. They own Citgo. It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States. I don’t think anybody can find any evidence that that would do so. Even within this imaginative crowd, I think you would be hard-pressed to paint a scenario in which U.S. interests would be damaged as a consequence of us having a more constructive relationship with Venezuela.
Obama, in short, ridiculed the very idea that we should see Chavez as a threatening figure, and threw in a bit of mockery of the reporters, to boot.
It’s worth recalling that there was a time when Dems would quake with fear about national security attacks coming from the right, let alone respond to them with outright mockery. In this sense, Obama’s tone underscores how much the political climate has shifted on such matters.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/obama-begins-mocking-gop-criticism-of-his-international-outreach/
An interesting, if subtle, shift in Obama’s tone: He’s taken to openly mocking GOP criticism of his willingness to diplomatically engage hostile foreign leaders.
You saw the new tone on display over the weekend, where Obama was questioned by reporters about the widespread GOP criticism of a warm handshake moment he had with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. GOP Senator John Ensign (http://whorunsgov.com/Profiles/John_Ensign), for instance, said (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-americas20-2009apr20,0,3878264.story) it was “irresponsible” to be seen “laughing and joking” with him.
Obama replied (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Conference-By-The-President-In-Trinidad-And-Tobago-4/19/2009/), in part:
Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the United States’. They own Citgo. It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States. I don’t think anybody can find any evidence that that would do so. Even within this imaginative crowd, I think you would be hard-pressed to paint a scenario in which U.S. interests would be damaged as a consequence of us having a more constructive relationship with Venezuela.
Obama, in short, ridiculed the very idea that we should see Chavez as a threatening figure, and threw in a bit of mockery of the reporters, to boot.
It’s worth recalling that there was a time when Dems would quake with fear about national security attacks coming from the right, let alone respond to them with outright mockery. In this sense, Obama’s tone underscores how much the political climate has shifted on such matters.