Monday, April 20, 2009

Obama does Latin America

Victor Davis Hanson on Obama's Latin American tour:

I don’t know whether this was the intent or not, but Obama’s weird trip to Latin America — characterized by constant anti-American outbursts from heads of state eager to blame their own failures on Yanquis — probably killed any notion that any sane American would support either further free-trade agreements or "comprehensive immigration reform" with a continent that seems to blame all of its self-inflicted troubles on what the United States supposedly did last century.


What is strange about the now well-known Obama three-step visits (apologize, then trash Bush, then nod that America was bad before he came along), is that they seem to incite more anti-American choruses rather than fewer, incur more bad will than good, and end with not a single accomplishment, much less concession. (Ortega et al, as the bullies they are, seemed madder at Obama that he was letting up on Cuba than they were with Bush, who wouldn't). Does Obama think that the American people really want to hear their country ritually trashed from those anti-democrats — who are, at the same time, jostling to keep our borders open to ensure more dollar remittances and more sanctuary for their own fleeing citizens?


These Victory Column-like foreign campaign stops are now getting stale, and at some point I think Emanuel and Axelrod will see that these magical mystery tours have the potential, in their scripted regularity, to really turn off the American people — and convince bad players abroad that it is about time to test the waters.

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