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The Voice of Reason
Occasional readers know I link my favorite (former) fighter pilot frequently and quote him quite often, too. Well, Lex has gone and done it yet again, and I quote:
Not every spasm of manufactured outrage on the right – or the left, for that matter – requires a counter-spasm from its increasingly polar opposite. The more customary and probably appropriate response when facing such an inconvenient set of facts is simply to ignore it, and hopefully move on to more substantive matters.
Like firing the White House protocol staff, for starters, who are serving not merely our president but also our country very poorly. Because getting the small things right in foreign diplomacy is important to all of us, since it sets the expectations of foreign leaders – all of whom are, quite naturally, angling for advantage – about the character and intelligence of the man they are negotiating with.
Our president is many things, but he is not nearly as stupid as his people are making him – and us – look.
That, of course, is all about this, as illustrated above. Yeah, it was stupid. Yeah, it was a significant breach of protocol and most certainly a reason to clean house in that space. Lex is right... fire each and every incompetent SOB on the White House protocol staff, which would appear to be ALL of 'em. Other than that? Let's talk about Afghanistan. Or certain pending trials in New York City. Or frickin' Obamacare. There are many other, larger fish to fry.
I agree - you know Obummer has to KNOW that the people who are supposed to "have his back" in protocol, speeches, etc. are making him look even worse than he actually is. You'd think a "genius" peace prize winner would know when to cut his losses and get rid of those people.
ReplyDeleteSince that's not happening, I'm inclined to think that he 1) is just not very smart 2) he thinks up his own protocol and writes his own speeches. Actually I'm inclined to think it's a combination of the two.....
Have a nice Sunday!
Buck, your friend is obviously a sane man. We must never run the risk of becoming the "Chimpy McBush crowd" that focused on EVERY blip of W.
ReplyDeleteYa' know, it's bad enough when I steal blog posts, but now I've gone to stealing "comments." I read this comment on a blog this morning.
I know the commenter. He is an attorney in Shreveport, and dislikes Obama just as much as the next guy. He wrote:
"I don’t have a problem with the fact of the bow….you’re SUPPOSED to bow in Japan….It’s their handshake.
What I do have a problem with is that it is clear that no one coached Obama on the subtleties of how to bow…
More “brilliant” Obama…spend 5 minutes on the net if you don’t have anyone smart enough to do it for you…
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/etiquetteinjapan/a/bowing.htm
I think that it's a mistake to assume that the protocol staff (which is always a patronage appointment) is not doing the job. I'm not superhuman like the O, but even I know that Americans do not bow to kings. Sure, in Japan, it might be polite to do a token bow, but he's practically prostrate.
ReplyDeleteA lot of folks who fell in love with Obama are now saying, "well, he's being badly served by his advisors." I don't buy that for a second; NeoNeocon makes my point very well here.
Protocol has let him down from day 1. *smirk*
ReplyDeleteI don't think his protocol can tell him anything.
ReplyDeleteHe knows everything. No one else's opinion matters to him; his is the best and only one to be voiced and, consequently, adhered to.
I agree that we can't risk starting our own strain of "ODS" but this stuff is basic diplomacy/conduct stuff. Obeisance from the POTUS is just wrong in ever way - and illustrates quite clearly the ineptitude of the current version.
While I agree that we need to avoid pointing out every little foible that man makes, I don't see this as little. He is prostrating himself before another head of state. Poor form.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm sure his handlers sent him down the path, if he hasn't figured out by now that they are a bunch of bumbling boobs, then he isn't any smarter than they are.
I'm a lot less worried about the protocol-people, compared to how worried I am about the slobbering fans.
ReplyDeleteI swear to God, they have a more tenuous grasp on reality and sanity than any faction that has ever decided anything politically in America, since the founding. And that says QUITE a lot. In this case, they simply cannot admit The O screwed the pooch. The very moment His Charismaticness does something, it becomes correct. At my place I recalled the Billy Madison scene in which Adam Sandler makes it "cool" to pee your pants. That fictitious character, at least, had some noble intentions and was trying to save face for the benefit of somebody else.
This sort of arrogance is dangerous in the extreme, no matter whether it's conservative or liberal.
Seeing that picture of our president bowing to another world leader - makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteBuck, there is no way the Protocol staff will be sanctioned, this is how PresBO feels our (the U.S. of A.) station in the world should be, remember he does not Love America. Harping on it hurts but it needs to go on the record so that when he is running for re-election it can be shown around. Of course that presumes the First Amendment survives till then.
ReplyDeleteBT: Jimmy T sends.
Well, after sleeping on it and further reviewing the lame-ass defense of The One issued by yet another faceless, nameless "senior gubmint official" and similar defenses from knee-jerk fanboi lefties... I'm really kinda pissed. Memeorandum's current page has some interesting stuff, including the fact Kyodo (the official Japanese news agency) was so embarrassed for The One that they ran a pic of him shaking hands with the Empress and NOT of the bow. This kinda shit just ISN'T done.
ReplyDeleteI have to say it's a combination of the two; his protocol staff is clueless (remember giving the Queen of England an Ipod and DVDs?) but he continues to either agree with them or worse, do his own thing.
ReplyDeleteHow this "man" continues to embarrass this great nation makes me want to vomit.
His wife isn't any better. Remember her putting her arm around the Queen? Again, severe breech of protocol.
I would have said that we're on the same page, with Lex, but it seems you've revised your position.
ReplyDeleteI don't see this as a big issue, but if y'all want to be upset, have at it.
Let me know what this latest smack down does to further our goals and differentiate us from the incoherent, angry liberals who turn everything into a personal beating.
Rude1: Many people have mentioned that The One couldn't be THAT dumb and that he goes his own way. I tend to believe that, and it annoys me.
ReplyDeleteDaphne: I didn't change my position... I just said the reactions from the left made me angry. As my original verbiage indicated, the act of bowing was both a breach of protocol and stupid, but we have other things to talk about. That, however, was made moot by the fact we're discussing it at some length in comments, right? Damned if ya do, damned if ya don't...
When you do it everyday with your wife, you can't stop doing it to even some nobody in Japan. It's all ceremony there anyway.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, we had to bow like this in POW school. If you didn't bow, the guards would beat the shit out of you. I told them to take it easy! "It's just training!" and then they beat me some more. The object being, that you have to be smarter than the guards, or you die. Bowing is just a cheap way to not get tortured or fed into an oven.
Heh. Good point about The One and his wife, Anon. I didn't look at it from that perspective.
ReplyDelete