President Obama is collecting praise for the humility expressed in his Strasbourg speech.
He confessed that the US had failed to show appropriate appreciation of Europe’s role in the world and described the US as sometimes “arrogant” and “dismissive.” Well it’s always easy to express humility on behalf of somebody else.
Message: You Europeans condemn George Bush? Well I humbly condemn him too. That’s not self-criticism. It’s self-praise via the criticism of others. And that’s the very opposite of humility.
8 responses so far
1 JJWFromME // Apr 5, 2009 at 10:38 am
And now you’re going to launch into your defense of George Bush, right?
No? To state the obvious, not even the stars of the GOP do that nowadays.
Bush’s policies have cost us dearly in international opinion. You want to undo those mistakes? State the obvious: we are not infallible.
2 krove // Apr 5, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I thought this blog was about finding new Conservative ideas. It’s just turned into a David Frum lets bash Obama Blog. There are hundreds of those that do a far better job. Time for you to give up on the ideas front because I can’t remember having seen any on this blog since it’s inception.
3 Ryan // Apr 5, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I think its fair to criticize the media for portraying this as humility, but to be fair that’s not really Obama’s fault. He hasn’t been going around claiming the statement represented a new era of humility as far as I’m aware.
But I think to most of the world an acknowledgement of our past arrogance has been a long time coming. It needed to be said and he said it. And while it may not be exactly humble it takes a certain amount of guts to make a controversial statement like that. And I applaud him for doing it. I think that simple phrase will help heal more strained international relationships than many Americans realize.
4 sinz54 // Apr 6, 2009 at 4:40 pm
krove: David Frum and I are definitely interested in new ideas. But the motivation is to win elections again–which involves explaining to the American people why they should deny Obama a second term.
5 sinz54 // Apr 6, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Ryan: “it takes a certain amount of guts to make a controversial statement like that.”
No it doesn’t.
Because Obama was saying it to cheering foreign crowds who were urging him on to say such things against his own country.
It would take guts for Obama to say it to an audience of U.S. military veterans.
It would take even more guts for Obama to say it to my face.
Obama is President of the United States, not President of the World. His job is to represent America to the world, not represent the world to America.
And that’s what I would tell him to HIS face.
6 Ryan // Apr 7, 2009 at 2:27 am
sinz54: Please. As if he wasn’t fully aware that those words spoken in Europe would make it back home. He said them to the world, knowing full well we’d hear it, and knowing he’d take flack. That’s why it took guts.
And do you honestly believe he was “representing the world to America” and not vice-versa here? Do you think he said those things for Europe’s benefit? That’s just silly. Both you and I know that he said it so he could increase his political capitol within the international community so he could accomplish more of America’s goals abroad. And that’s undoubtedly the effect that it had.
7 sinz54 // Apr 7, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Ryan: If you know that something you say about me is going to offend me, it’s cowardly for you to fly thousands of miles away to another country, say it there to a more sympathetic audience, and then come back here to the States leaving me to stew in my juice, isolated and alone, without any chance to defend my own record to him or to anyone else.
It was a contemptible act.
It’s also a profoundly un-American act. Obama is President of the UNITED STATES. His first responsibility is to explain himself to the American people. Yet he left us to find out what he said for ourselves, as if what we think about it is less important than what Europeans think about it.
Well, shame on him.
The next time he wants to criticize America, let him say it TO AMERICA.
Then we can answer him right back.
8 sinz54 // Apr 7, 2009 at 5:56 pm
What Obama did, was insult America behind her back.
I’ll never forgive him for that.
Never.
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