I was all set to give President Obama a big rhetorical hug when a meeting with the Dalai Lama today at 11:00 am ET popped up on the schedule. There was speculation he’d stiff Tibet’s spiritual leader in order to appease the colonizers of Tibet and the destoyers of its culture – that is, the Chinese government – as he did in October 2009, when he caved to Chinese pressure to eschew a meeting.
But then I took closer look. Obama is meeting with the Dalai Lama on a Saturday morning, when press coverage will be minimal. The meeting was announced just the night before it was to occur to further dilute coverage, even though these things are planned well in advance. And he’s hosting him in the Map Room, not the Oval Office, so as not to give any hint of official recognition or endorsement to Tibet’s tragic symbol of defiance.
IS THE OVAL OFFICE BEING REFURBISHED?????
No, it’s just another example of Obama’s willingness to placate our rivals and enemies, famously enshrined by his desire to come to terms with people like Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Assad.
Like these people, the Chinese Politburo doesn’t understand having its collective asses kissed. It tickles them, and makes them uncomfortable. What they do understand is a a punch in the jaw, or at least a look of defiance. They’ll never like us, but they might respect us.
Obama loves to compare himself to Ronald Reagan – not of course, to the former president’s politics, but to his character and ability to do big things – but can anyone imagine Ronald Reagan meeting the Dalai Lama in the Map Room? Can anyone imagine any great leader slinking off the to Map Room for such a meeting so as not to upset our adversaries?
Obama’s treatment of the Dalai Lama brings to mind a poll released this week by Zogby showing his approval ratings among Arabs have plummeted – reportedly to a level even lower than that of George W. Bush when the former president left office in 2008.
This after Obama has spent so much time sucking up to that region of the world, from speechifying in Cairo about our common humanity, to bowing to the Saudi leader, to pursing what he thinks is a more “evenhanded” approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The rest of the world, beyond our cushy, effete allies in Europe, doesn’t think like we do. It’s a cold, Darwinian place that will either fear you or eat you alive.
Aside from al Qaeda militants, whom Obama has done a good job of scooping up, does anyone in the world fear Barack Obama?
Not the Chinese, for sure, and the result will show up in China’s growing effort to bully our allies in Asia and spread its power throughout the world.
49 thoughts on “Hello Dalai. Please Sit Over There and Be Quiet.”
Wasn’t the Map Room where the raffle campaign ad was filmed? hmm…
Yes indeed. The Map Room is where the “Dinner with Barack and Joe” campaign ad was filmed…
Maybe if he does a little photo op on Saturday morning it won’t look so bad when he plays golf this weekend. He IS going to play, isn’t he?
Last time the o “met with” the Dalai Lama, he was escorted out of the WH by a back/side door, past the garbage. With a photo op.
Class will out.
A second visit to the WhiteHouse and the Prez makes time to greet him even though our Asian loan shark doesn’t approve seems to be counter-productive.
The Tibetan religious leader obviously wants something from us and I doubt it’s a photo op with the POTUS.
What a bunch of ingrates those Muslims must be; why, our Prez even made them rocket scientists, gave them our money, and made his wife put a scarf over her head and walk barefoot on the pebbles while the FirstCouple was visiting their countries. Heck, MrsClinton even went so far as to give the rebel forces in Libya diplomatic status even though we can’t identify a single person as their “leader”. I say we pick up our ball and bat and money and let them fight it out among themselves.
I want to see the muslim gate CLOSED! They are no better than anyone else, they are no different, they can just blend into the crowd like the rest of us, they aren’t SPECIAL! Who do they think they are making our women wear scarfs, the frickin POPE!
And I’ll also be damned letting my spell check cap muslim!
…try using the historical term: “mohammedan” :-)
(used it a few times in an undergrad International Relations class… the Prof. almost threw me out -LOL)
I see the next administration being similar to when Reagan took office. He immediately started kicking butt. Our next president will be coming out of the corner swinging. I can’t wait and I only hope we manage to survive until then.
That is what I see as well Mrs Compton. Someone who has the same strength and love of country as Reagan demonstrated. Someone who is willing to take on their own political party to clean up the corruption and bloat in DC. If the conservatives can hold the line with the debt ceiling debate, we have an opportunity to turn the ship of state around.
The complaints here are usually that he’s overexposed, on TV all the time, or that the sight of the President makes them physically (or metaphorically – it’s hard to tell with Dossier commenters!) ill.
And so now he meets with the Dalai Lama in private with no photo-op and there’s griping again. Unbelievable.
Over exposing, hiding…both are bad…
Hman, it’s why he’s doing it…to appease the Chinese that makes our blood boil. But of course since the unbelievable debt he’s racked up I guess he has to put the chi-coms in charge of our sovereignty.
He is not avoiding the limelight from a sense of dignity or humility, hman. He’s trying to HIDE a meeting with the Dali Lama.
Aren’t you being a little hard on the Map Room. Do we still even look at maps?
Well written and perfectly on target, Keith. This is, once again, shameful treatment of this religious leader. Meanwhile the Chinese regime collectively smirks while abusing and imprisoning their opponents. BTW, just this past week the regime appointed new Roman “catholic” bishops amid White House timidity and silence.
Whatever you do, Pres. Obama & Sec. St. Hillary, don’t do anything to upset our totalitarian “friends.”
Oh how Presidential. Karma he should look that word up because there is a
lot of really bad Karma building due to his missteps like this…again. And like
all bad deeds Karma will jump up and get you possibly about 2012?
I’m crossing my fingers for impeachment proceeding way before then!
If you can tolerate another personal story, here it is:
Back in fourth or fifth grade, as the years pass the memory starts to fail, I was a short, fat, four eyed kid whose mother thought that polyester pants and a pocket protector was the way to send her son to public school in Chicago. Granted this was 1969 or 70, so Chicago’s public schools were not as bad as they are now, but still.
There was a boy, I swear to God he must have been held back 5 or 6 times as he was huge. At least 5 inches taller than me, and heavier and stronger than me. “Billy the bully” abused, beat up and teased every kid he could in class, especially me. I was a prime target. Billy would punch, kick, slap you name it to me on a daily basis. After four months or so of tolerating his abuse and coming home with bruises, cuts, lumps and feeling like a wimp (okay, back then I was a wimp) I finally hit my breaking point.
One day during recess he started in on me again. This time something snapped, and I kicked him in the “family jewels”! As he stood there doubled over from pain I ran around behind him and kicked him in the tush, sending him face first to the ground. Because he was trying to hold his “family” together he didn’t use his hands to break his fall, and ended up with a face full of playground gravel.
After that day Billy never picked on me again, and I learned a valuable lesson, bullies understand one thing and one thing only – courage and force (okay, maybe that’s two). It is a lesson that I have taken with me for the rest of my life, and one I have taught to my children and will, hopefully one day, teach to my grandchildren.
Bullies, whether they be on playgrounds or in southwest or southeast Asia, South America, or along the Rio Grande will only back down when they believe that their victim will no longer be a victim.
Unfortunately for America, we have a President that thinks everyone deserves a trophy, and feelings mean more than being right. If we survive the next two years as a country we will need another Reagan or a Churchill to beat back the tide of pandering and ass kissing that has gone on for far to long.
How ironic is it that we have a President and his wife who hold White House conferences on bullying, and yet they have no clue as to how to deal with a bully, other than to say “Stop it!”
My ex husband was a bully, to the extreme that I eventually stopped speaking. I met a wonderful woman who showed me about the equality of marriage and that both partners have a say in what goes on in it. My mew went to a low growl, my low growl went to a roar and finally I began to speak for myself. I discovered he wasn’t so tough after all, that he had the lowest of self esteem but had discovered that being a bully always got him what he wanted.
Well, he underestimated me, I left him with a beach chair and a portable radio.
I feel at times with oblowme that I’m dealing with my ex. The doublespeak, the lies, the manipulation. I was polite at first, my mama taught me well, but I am now NO FOOL. I’m charged up and I will see this trash go down in flames. And I will help and I will celebrate. And gawd will Inauguration day be glorius!
“Oblowme”??? BRILLIANT!!!
No capital Mike, he doesn’t even deserve the use of my pinky hitting the shift key.
Love the last sentence!!
Obama comparing himself to Reagan seems to be the latest meme being propagated. Seems appropriate to use a old phrase…
Well Mr Obama I served with Ronald Reagan. I knew Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a friend of mine. Mr Obama, you’re no Ronald Reagan.
Nice.
I am not head over heels for Reagan either.
This WH loves metaphors–tonite is the start of BREAKING BAD on AMC. The fruits of hubris gone wrong.
Reagan had his faults, just like any other human. He made mistakes for sure. The difference between him and Obama? Reagan wasn’t afraid to admit when he made a mistake. Obama…well, we still have his Affordable Health Care Act looming over the future of this country.
I like your “next to, the next to last” paragraph about this being a darwinian world where you show no vulnerability or else you become prey. Very true and that was a part of the Reagan doctrine.
As for your next to last paragraph re: is there anyone who fears BHO? Perhaps some of the establishment Republicans cower a bit. Current events would seem to suggest this relationship. Respect for the office is one thing, but these wusses need to kick him in the teeth first and then the balls. Call the bastard’s bluff on this debt ceiling/deficit crap.
Good point – Obama feared by al Qaeda and GOP operatives, and that’s it.
I’m going to have to look up the definition of “fear”. It must have changed if there’s ANYbody on the planet who fears BHO. He bows, he gives that upside down handshake to Chavez and tries to appeal to the better angels of men who have their angels imprisoned, starved, hung, draped in black or beheaded.
And HE apologizes for U.S.
Does ANYONE in the “mainstream media” KNOW the History of COMMUNIST CHINA…?
The People’s Republic of China since 1949 has killed over 20+million of its own citizens (re: Great Leap Forward & Cultural Revoulution & police state tactics) and has conducted large scale ethnic cleansing (TIBET! and many other minorites in China)
BUT because COMMUNIST CHINA ‘owns’ BILLIONS of US $$$, had a pretty Olympics (very Berlin 1936?) and has cute Pandas and is running a massive global propaganda program (teach your kids Chinese!) NO ONE IN THE ‘MEDIA’ DARE REPORT ABOUT CHINA
…sorry for ranting :-) Im one of the few ‘conservative/Pro-USA’ “China scholars” out here. The B.S. I went thru at college studying China and saying it is a threat to America in the 21st Century…
LB, thank you for expressing one of the most under-recognized facts of modern history. Mao Tse Tung, along with his henchmen, is one of the great mass murderers of all time. In this case, the supposedly kinder, gentler China that followed him has terrorized Tibetans, physically destroyed their culture, and diluted it by populating the province with Han Chinese. No one would deal with the successors to the NAZI Party. And yet we deal w the PRC and the Chinese Communist Party as if nothing ever happened.
Yeah, this was my major in college–these are not sweethearts.
Hen Hao! Star
I would have had to learn Chinese to get the MA, but back atcha. The Elliott School! Rah!
!,
Star, you & I need to talk about “China Studies”…
Im a 20th Century Chinese History & Politics type…my Chinese language is ‘Bu Hao’…but I want to hear anything from you & the Elliot School :-)
Seems we will forget, doesn’t it?
While the resident of the WH glorifies China by washing the Empire State Building in red, hangs Mao Tse Tung ornaments on the WH Christmas tree, and employs official spokespersons who publicly exclaim their admiration for Mao Tse Tung’s “philosophy”. Scary times.
I don’t think he of the Ivy League education knows history at all
considering his actions. Because if he does then we are in more
trouble than his Chairman Mao fixation. Of course I still haven’t gotten over his return/rejection of the Churchill Bust. Still think he
cares little for America we are just a petri dish for his grand experiment.
WHATEVER he is, it ain’t American.
petri dish
Ladies and germs…
Is this an example of smart diplomacy or soft power?
Outsmarting ourselves?
“soft power” = COMMUNIST CHINA now has ICBM missiles that can target US Navy aircraft carriers 1000+ miles from Asia…
Maybe I misinterpret the question, but yes, I fear what further damage that idiot Obama can do to our country.
Obama: Get Marvin Nicholson, Ben Finkenbinder and David Katz on the phone.
Obama: 10:30 tommorrow
Daley: Mr. President, you promised.
Obama: Jay says I can chew gum and walk at the same time.
So tommorrow, it’s 76!
Couldn’t expect him to go a a whole two weeks without playing golf could you? Nothing to worry about…he has Harry & Mitch cooking up that backroom deal to turn over the power of the purse to him. Things are going grand for him so why not celebrate with some fun on the links with the boys.
He either had a change in heart or someone was able to convince him a church visit would give him a bump in the polls.
When this great big fuzzy hug campaign with Islam started, I was curious to see the results. I seriously doubted it would do any good, and unfortunately that was the case. Now they see us as a weakened nation, which we are, and they are that much more empowered to proceed with their dreams to kill us all.
Mr. Koffler, you ask: “but can anyone imagine Ronald Reagan meeting the Dalai Lama in the Map Room?”
Actually it’s interesting that you say that – being that: 1) no president has ever met with the Dalai Lama in the Oval Office, 2) Ronald Reagan never met the Dalai Lama, 3) while Reagan was president, Tibetan officials were not even met (by lower level officials) in the State Department Building, much less the White House, for fear of pissing off China. …but don’t let facts get in the way of your idealization of Reagan and your hate of Obama.
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