I am now an expert on international politics and will pass judgement on and provide analysis of the Nobel Peace Prize going to Barack Obama, just like every other fuckhead.
It’s Swedish. And it’s glittery. Just like Abba. A “Black Abba”, if you wish. Afghanistan is Obama’s Waterloo. Discuss.
[This post is based on a couple of tweets from last night. 1, 2. Someone thought it was amusing. I wanted to link the word “Waterloo” to some explanatory material, but was stuck. Which link?]
There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding President Obama “bowing” and scraping to dignitaries such as the Saudi King. Here in news piece from the Huffington Post noting that the White House prefers to state that the President bent over to shake his hands (rather than bowing).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/obama-bow-to-saudis-cnn-r_n_185281.html
Here’s a YouTube video regarding this “double hand shaking to a taller guy”
Obama Bows to the King of Saudi Arabia. His Lord and Master? But Not to Queen Elizabeth II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1yb2AwQJG8
Obviously being nice would be contributing factor to a Nobel Peace Prize.
The Washington Times more recently
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/06/obama-bows-again/?feat=home_editorials
“The Obama White House shows an inordinate – one might say obsessive – amount of concern for other countries’ sensitivities. The president and his team seem fixated on the notion that the Bush administration ruined America’s image in the world and it is the administration’s historic mission to repair it.”
and concludes
“So far, every time Mr. Obama has a chance to stand for something on the world stage, he bows instead.”
@Bob Bain: The rapid right of American politics seem to have always equated strength with belligerence, and see any sign of cooperation or just plain civility as weakness.I don’t see how Obama can “win” against those guys, ‘cos if he then started showing the kind of strength they admire they’d see him as an uppity black.
There’s an interesting piece at Language Log which quotes some commentators as saying Obama is a narcissist, that he’s continually using words like “I”, “me” and “my”. As it happens, a proper textual analysis shows that he uses those personal pronouns half as often as George W Bush. But let’s not let facts get in the way.