Mar

22

The NY Post had a splashy (in both senses) photo of President Obama on the tarmac greeting the foreign hoo-ha of cuba. There were several dignitaries in evidence as well as a number of Secret Service men, as is usual in all such circumstances.  You know that old adage, A picture is worth 1,000 words? This picture says more, some of which –surprisingly–show learning on the part of our obdurate and preternaturally untransparent 44th. Or maybe his chief of protocol finally earned his keep by orchestrating the noted change in comportment. Let us count the ways.

In previous such outings in rain or storm with President Obama, his Secret Service detail were shamefully abused by being forced to hold umbrellas over the heads of Obama and whomever else he thought warranted the cover. To outside observers, this may not seem a big deal, but to cognoscenti, the use of Secret Service agents for any purpose other than alert protection is unlawful. The President was informed of this misuse of his protection services by the Service. In this newest photo, as he makes what he hopes would be a legacy-cementing jaunt to the miserable Communist country at our foot, he holds his own umbrella.

Note that he is holding it over himself. The foreign dignitary he is shaking hands with does not have a cover, nor does anyone hold one over his head. Obama shakes hands with Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez, his tall elder daughter in sneakers behind him.Three men appearing to be Secret Service, a few females standing behind the Cuban foreign minister, and…fairly obvious, neither Raul nor ailing Fidel Castro bestirring themselves to appear as a respectful nod to the significant visit by arguably the hegemon of the continent, if not the globe. This is the man who has loosened the restrictions on travel and trade that mean billions in sales, inflated hotel usage, tourists and the like, to this decrepit country hobbling along until either death or takeover frees the population from 60-year-long Castroite handcuffs.

Two nondescript greeter-women, without umbrellas, hold flowers, presumably for the President. They do not look enthralled.

Slap in the face to the United States, as airstrip pomp is noticeably lacking for this apparently self-abasing chief executive, who has extended more than a 'hand in friendship' to the renegade longtime Communist country a hop from Florida's nether toe.

It is uncertain whether the President will inquire as to human rights on the brutal regime where persons with HIV, for instance, are sequestered, and reasons for incarceration vary from state crimes to poetry that runs against the tastes of the Castros. Prisons are notoriously unhygienic and unmodernized,far from the conveniences and allurements of Guantanamo. No squash courts, recreation, reading material or niches for korans, exceptional menu fare that puts pounds on the once-rangy frames of terrorists caught on the battlefield in Muslim lands of cruel call. No telling if he'll request extradition of our criminals, like Joanne Chesimard, AKA Assata Shakur.

Ready and waiting for a tell-all doc by the pubic-faced obeso, Michael Moore. Documentarian of the assertion that Cuban medical care exceeds that available on the mainland. Maybe with Affordable Care Act implosions, price hikes and disreputable absence of actual care, Moore is the person to shame this President into a belated recognition of ACA fails. Naah.

Next, note that the President is again bowing from the waist to the foreign minister, as he did, notably, with the Saudi king early in his regime. (Obama's regime, not Abdullah's.)

The protocol is that US Presidents never bow to foreign leaders. It lowers our prestige, and raises theirs. It is not done. Except by the groveler who cannot even yet, after seven years of making our country visibly weaker (ask any African head—the weaker we get, the weaker they get. Talk to any small-nation potentate, such as the leader of Togo, trying to stay free) abase his country enough.

Third, the sissyboy we have seen on girlie bikes while he is on his multimillion-dollar vacations in Martha's Vineyard and elsewhere is a sissyboy here, too. If all the men in the picture but he are without umbrellas, why does he have to be the sole meltable? It may be all right for Sasha to hold an umbrella, since she's female, and her clothing or shoes or hair may have set the American taxpayer back five-figures, as we have read recently. Her graduation dress reportedly cost $30,000—nice work if you can get it. But this president: Does he have to be the nerd o' nerds? Be a male, O. Just because you live in a permanent protected bubble does not mean you have to lose your manhood. If the Cuban Foreign Minister can cope without a bumbershoot, you can, too.

Fourth, note the smile on this "statesman's" face. Can you imagine Presidents Reagan, Bush 41 or 43 or Eisenhower making such photogenic tools of themselves for an enemy nation, even one on the verge of taking further advantage of the US? Why not be presidential, greet ministers he meets with reserve and decorum? One notes that in Obama's forthcoming visit to the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth will not be meeting with this President. No doubt a considered response to his slap in the face to Great Britain when newly anointed 44th president, B.H.Obama, unceremoniously returned the iconic bust of Sir Winston Churchill, hero of the Second World War,on his White House ascendancy. And Obama's shockingly narcissistic "gifts."

A smaller photo in the Post article showed the President near his multi-million-dollar Beast, an armored car the likes of which no man on Earth has ever had. He's smiling the signature wall-to-wall grin we've seen for seven and a half dispiriting years: Mr Ecstatic, cruising in Cuba. How winsome.

How much power can be exerted by such a namby-pamby leader-from-behind? There you have it: 1,000 words matching those telling historic snaps.


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2 Comments so far

  1. andrew on March 22, 2016 7:51 pm

    Please google “secret service umbrella bush” and click on images. You’ll see presidents Reagan, both Bushes, and Obama all with umbrellas held by marines or secret service men. And one of president clinton holding one for Ted Kennedy.

  2. Steve on March 23, 2016 10:15 pm

    .
    “How much power can be exerted by such a namby-pamby leader-from-behind?”

    What crap. Right, all we need is a strong powerful leader and all will be right in the world. US government policies are hardly any different than they were 40 years ago. Foreign policy is the same, domestic policy the same. The US still locks up more people per 100k than any other country in the world. And an enormous empire continues to be supported off the backs of the productive.

    Weak leader, strong leader, republican, Democrat, blah blah blah. They are all the same. Say one thing during the campaign, and do another in office. Buy the base during the race and then sell them out after the win. And it will happen again with the new crook in chief like night follows day.

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