Obama is a BIG hit over here in Europe!

RickW

Feel free to keep him.

paulside

Feel free to keep him.

No thanks, we've got enough pretenders in our own government.

jeff hammond

well, i guess that's cool if barack can change the way americans are viewed by the rest of the world.. maybe i won't have to travel with a sombrero anymore..

check this link to see what it takes for the u.s. pres to get to london:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/obama-london-visit-uk-g20

also, for a look into the dining habits of some of the richest people in the world:

The G-20 leaders will start off with a lavish banquet, whose menu is leaked to the press and consists of 38 courses, including roast penguin feet and white rhino omelette

tomsdesk

I'll keep him...and proud of it! Here's an excerpt from Thursday's PBS Newshour:

Obama's leadership
RAY SUAREZ: This was President Obama's first appearance on the world stage. Can he leave London with a set of accomplishments to talk about?

MARGARET WARNER: Well, you could see, I think, he certainly thinks so. He was modest and said, "I'll leave it to others to judge." But they are certainly pleased with the fact that they got a global response to this crisis.

And President Obama did clearly spend -- play a role here in bringing people who were already at the table to an agreement.

And I'll tell one anecdote. The big sticking point, the logjam all day was over this tax havens issue. France and Germany, particularly France, really wanted this, and they wanted this OECD, the Organization of Economic Corporation and Development in Europe, to publish this list, blacklist for the countries that don't share, a white list for those that do, and a gray list for countries, like Switzerland, which has said they will, but they haven't yet.

President Hu of China was absolutely unalterably opposed, because Macau, a city in China, is one of these, but China's not a member of the OECD.

President Obama, we're told, finally, late in the afternoon, first gestured to President Sarkozy. They went in a corner. President Obama showed him some suggested language to split the difference. Sarkozy agreed.

He then went back and he wrote it out, or someone wrote it out, and took it to President Hu, who then -- he and the Chinese were considering it and considering it, so finally President Obama gestured President Hu into the corner, they discussed it. And President Hu -- it took more time -- he also agreed. President Obama then brought Sarkozy to the corner, and they all agreed.

Now, that was the kind of, I think, leadership that he did exercise. It was not -- as they would say, it was not dictating an answer, but it was coming up with an answer in which the two parties each could meet.

david.

@rickw said:

Feel free to keep him.

Might I suggest that they can keep Obama and give us Daniel Hannan. At least Hannan understands you can't borrow to get out of debt.

bellwells

@david. said:

@rickw said:

Feel free to keep him.

Might I suggest that they can keep Obama and give us Daniel Hannan. At least Hannan understands you can't borrow to get out of debt.

I'll take Hannan over Obama any day.

Mike Lucey

Yeah, Hannan made a smooth speech, 'The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government', very crisp.

Then again Thatcherism wasn't that great for Britain either, selling off much of the family jewels! I have seen arguments where these current fiscal problems can be traced back to Thatcher and Reagan, the Sweet Heart Couple. I do agree with borrowing for productive employment but not for the Public Service.

RickW

Mike, I consider you a friend, so I humbly ask you to please forgive my little rant here in your thread.

I, for one, cannot be proud that Obama was elected. He has unconstitutionally wrested control of the auto industry, he is eyeing significant unconstitutional control of the banking sector, and an unconstitutional takeover of the healthcare sector is likely next. These area all consistent with his agenda of increased government bloat. The only question is whether the energy sector will be targeted before or after healthcare.

The government has absolutely no right to dictate the operations of the business world as it is now doing. It also has no business bailing out companies left and right, but that's another (albeit related) issue.

I'm not surprised that he is using an engineered financial crisis to propagate his agenda, but I'm surprised that so many people are okay with that - epecially considering the inevitably disatrous results of the stupid carbon cap-and-trade energy tax proposal.

And how about that lame AIG stunt? You know, sign off on the bill your cronies wrote that included all those bonuses, then blame AIG for paying the bonuses the bill required, claiming you didn't know it was written into the bill? Classic politicking, and people are falling for it. Either that, or he didn't read before he signed - a really dumb move for an Ivy-league law school grad.

Had it been McCain instead of Obama, certain segments of the population would be rioting in the streets. But since it's their poster-child for their agenda, it's all sunshine and roses. I'm just relieved he's managed to renege on some of his campaign promises already.

We need a real president - it's been 20 years since the last decent one, and probably another 25 before that. I know they can't all be great, but that's just too long between. So far the only good thing I've seen from Obama is how well he reads his teleprompter - but the message leaves a lot to be desired.

solo

Rick W wrote:

@unknownuser said:

We need a real president- it's been 20 years since the last decent one

LMFA, now what is that supposed to mean? One that has your ideals in mind and not ours?

Lemme guess Reagan was your 'REAL' president? um, he was a conservative so he would'nt represent the 'WE' in your statement, so maybe you should say "Myself and similarly right wing conservatives need another ex actor like the last one" and maybe you can get the constitution changed and have the 'Terminator' step up to the plate.

And according to the April 2nd ratings 69 % of Americans like him and wanna keep him, however his wife seems a little more popular than him at the moment it seems.

jeff hammond

@rickw said:

Had it been McCain instead of Obama

had it been mccain instead of obama, everything would be the same..
the idea that we have a power shift every 4/8 years is insane.. the people in power remain in power.. the presidents are puppets for the real power holders.. the system works real well because most of the population will sit around and blame the presidents for this and that while the real power holders do their thing virtually unnoticed.. you're wasting your energy by concentrating on how bad obama is for you or how good mccain would've been.. they are both the same..

the last great president was JFK.. he's the one that tried to use his power as the President of the United States to avoid going into vietnam.. he was of course killed and the war mongers/money makers/control freaks had another real puppet (lbj) in the public eye and they immediately continued their agenda..

IdahoJ

So, Obama is a "Bad Guy" because he is taking steps to solve the greatest financial crisis seen in America since the Great Depression. Wow. Everyone is so concerned about the "Europeanization" of the US and the loss of "rugged American individualism" that they ignore the "here and now"... meh.

Shucks, Bush only started a unconstitutional war, thumbed his nose at Congress repeatedly and lied to the American Public, among other things... No small wonder he's "keeping his mouth shut" and out of the media limelight these days... Yes, "Gee-Dubb-ya", we all "deserve your silence".

It's getting SO tiresome to read about the villification of Barack Obama. Especially since no one else has stepped up to the plate with anything more than negative rhetoric... I don't hear or read ANY constructive or even rational plans for pulling us out of this economic nosedive from the GOP at all...

What I do read is drivel like this from the GOPs "poster child"...

@unknownuser said:

Palin herself criticized proposed Obama administration cuts proposed to missile defense programs. “I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,” she said in the statement.

She simply "parrots" whatever the GOP tells her so they can position her as their next Presidential hopeful in 2012. She wouldn't know an fully equipped ICBM from a suppository as far as I'm concerned. Oh please...

IdahoJ

And let's not forget the topic of this thread: Our European brethren, for the most part, like Obama. Even if it doesn't "fix all the problems" immediately, at least it "opens a door" again for US European foreign relations instead of having it "slammed shut" like it was with Bush...

Problem resolution needs to start with dialog and escalate to trust. The Bush Administration successfully trashed both of those IMO and I hope Obama and his Administration can regain them again.

Cheers.

RickW

@solo said:

Lemme guess Reagan was your 'REAL' president?

Yeah, and the 25 years before that was Kennedy. Get over it.

@solo said:

um, he was a conservative so he would'nt [sic] represent the 'WE' in your statement, so maybe you should say "Myself and similarly right wing conservatives need another ex actor like the last one" and maybe you can get the constitution changed and have the 'Terminator' step up to the plate.

First, "we" means the country, not liberal or conservative. Second, your tired old "ex-actor" remark is just plain ridiculous. Finally, Schwarzenegger is no conservative. I don't want him in office any more than I want Obama.

@solo said:

And according to the April 2nd ratings 69 % of Americans like him and wanna keep him, however his wife seems a little more popular than him at the moment it seems.

First, the polls are skewed. Torture the statistics enough, and they'll confess to anything. Second, I'll reiterate - I'm surprised that so many people are okay with his unconstitutional power grabs. If you want to use poll data, try this one on: he's the most divisive president in the last 30 years. So much for his "bipartisan" tone (code for "join our side in doing it our way").

RickW

@unknownuser said:

@rickw said:

Had it been McCain instead of Obama

you're wasting your energy by concentrating on how bad obama is for you or how good mccain would've been.. they are both the same..

You missed the point. I wasn't saying McCain would have been better, I was saying the libs' reaction to McCain would have been more pronounced had he done what Obama is doing.

@idahoj said:

And let's not forget the topic of this thread: Our European brethren, for the most part, like Obama. Even if it doesn't "fix all the problems" immediately, at least it "opens a door" again for US European foreign relations instead of having it "slammed shut" like it was with Bush...

We have many allies that have been alienated over the past 8 years, but Obama's not the only one who could have helped restore those relationships. It's great if he does, but improving relations doesn't excuse poor domestic policy.

jeff hammond

@rickw said:

@unknownuser said:

@rickw said:

Had it been McCain instead of Obama

you're wasting your energy by concentrating on how bad obama is for you or how good mccain would've been.. they are both the same..

@unknownuser said:

You missed the point. I wasn't saying McCain would have been better, I was saying the libs' reaction to McCain would have been more pronounced had he done what Obama is doing.

oh, ok.. my bad.

solo

Lets play the 'what if' for a moment....

What if Sarah palin and her grandad won, I would have loved to see her on a visit to the queen, America would have cringed!

I'd be curious what she would be able to see from Buckingham palace however.

RickW

@idahoj said:

So, Obama is a "Bad Guy" because he is taking steps to solve the greatest financial crisis seen in America since the Great Depression. Wow.

Yeah, and Adolf took steps to solve Germany's financial crisis. He succeeded in not only improving Germany's economy, but reinvigorating some national pride that had been lost. Unfortunately, things got a bit worse after that.

Now, before someone flips out from reading too much into my comment, I'm not saying Obama is Hitler. I'm saying an ideologue will take advantage of a bad situation to further his agenda. The most cunning power grabs begin with "legitimacy", then move away from legitimacy using a crisis as justification. You complained about Bush doing that, yet you gave Obama a pass - that's called a double-standard.

No, we have no cause to be proud of that.