Thursday, November 26, 2009

Opinion

Michael Barone

Obama, Democrats Disrespect Mexico and Brazil--Where Are the Bush Critics?

March 18, 2009 01:30 PM ET | Michael Barone | Permanent Link | Print

Reader Comments

Can republicans criticize?

I mean, besides the epic failure known as the Bush Administration, how can NeoCons accuse democrats of anything? Your boy Bush wanted to build a wall between US and Mexico. Thats a bit insulting isnt it?

And its funny how neocons were all pro government when wiretaps were going on and Homeland security was being formed. "Well, if you arent doing anything wrong, who cares if the government is listening in on your calls?" Or Eminent domain reared its head again. "Well, you should give up that land for government. Dont be anti american and get in Bushs way!" And Bush invades the wrong country in retaliation for 9/22, "Well, those people need to be liberated too. We need to send them trillions to get their lives back together!" But now Obama talks about giving people an option besides being screwed by private industry and now these same neocons are saying, "Get outta our lives government!! We arent paying to help americans get health care!!" Really? Neocons have taken hypocrisy to a whole new level.

Still Clueless

It's always fun reading the comments because it proves among other things that people don't read carefully what is written or just want to toss insults at each other.

The point of the column is not about ideology. Bush was conservative and Obama is liberal. So what? The issue at hand is competence and bias. Bush was lambasted for being a reckless cowboy who was insensitive to our allies and neighbors. Obama was supposed to heal all that. But simple respect and protocol to foreign dignitaries and honoring agreements that are already in place (such as NAFTA, whether you like it or not) is an issue of competence and respect. I still don't see much of either.

By the way, the "I'm behind Geithner 100%" is Obama's "Brownie, you're doing a hell of job" moment.

Nice.

Hoping for Change ( in a hurry)

President teleprompter can't even meet with a foreign leader without screwing up the most basic details.He can't find anyone but tax cheats and authoritarian crackpots owned by the Saudis to appoint, and every time he opens his mouth the market spirals further downward.Yes this was certainly the change we needed.

Republicans: REPENT and get out of O's way

Bush IS an arrogant idiot who was placed in office by bigger idiots to represent corporate america's GREED - PERIOD. In his first visit to Brazil, Bush was surprised to know that there are black people in Brazil. What do you say about that? GET OUT OF THE WAY, republicans. You've done enough evil in the world. LET Obama clean the crater of crap, Bush & the GOP left behind.

From the Brazilian front...

I'm from Brazil. I sure agree that Republicans are much more *liked* in Brazil than Democrats, that is surely the majority opinion here.

Anyways, people here don't not think Obama was disrespectful towards Brazil. In fact, it was nice for Lula getting invited to visit the White House before 100 days of the Obama presidency.

BUT, Obama did not change brazilians opinion on American way of dealing with some problems, it just came stronger with Bush, but it was not a problem created by Bush.

Economically, Brazil does the same dirt protectionism stuff as America, they have almost the same type of incentives, but Brazilians think they are special because of it's lower per-capita.

Socially, Brazilians just hate the way the media treats illegal aliens. That's because in Brazil people accept very well aliens, because everybody here is "alien". 50% of Sao Paulo population have or can have Italian passports, 30%. Brazil have the largest Japanese population, after Japan itself. So, it is very hard for people here to understand how can you arrest someone for crossing a border. Arresting a human being for this is not human and it is ugly, don't matter what Sean Hannity says. Those are miserable people, america should have pity of them, not hatred.

Politicaly, Brazilians, in fact, don't give a **** about Middle East, Israel, Russia or Iran. You will never see Brazil supporting any kind of war. That's why Brazilians don't like America playing like a world-police when it has lots of other problems involving killing and non-democracy in it's logbook than some "evil" countries.

See, look at venezuela: Brazilian don't like Hugo Chavez, still, no one here cares if he becomes Nazi or kill children, as long as he is in it's territory.

Sorry about my english,

Regards!!!

re: Get a clue

"Respected"?What planet are you living on? Not the same one we inhabit, I reckon.

Get a Clue

Bush was respected in Mexico and Brazil, maybe not "liked" but respected. The Obama administration seems to have a huge lack of respect for many things.

If Obama continues to insult world leaders with his CD gift bag the relationships will go south in a hurry.

BTW, President Bush was a little busy in his first term, recession and then 911. Oh, I forgot you libs discount all of that just because of your hateful nature for Bush. It also seems that President Obama has the time to work on taking away the medical benefits from our nation's heroes, but he can't deal with world affairs. What a joke.

Every move President Obama has made has been the wrong one so far. Hopefully he gets his sea legs before it's too late.

Umm

Those examples you gave are not example of disrespect--they are examples, actually, of having a US president that watches out for his own workers' health and labor conditions, as well as protecting foreign labor from being exposed to unsafe trade agreements. Obama has said time and time again that he is not protectionist and if pro-free, responsible, fair, trade. I think the Latin Americans have more important things to worry about with Europe's protectionist agricultural and textiles tariffs.

You want to know that disrespectful is?? Bush's "war on drugs" in Colombia (where American agents, and mercenaries destroy Colombian peoples' fields and raid their property, a direct disrespect for their sovereignty); his unyielding support for Colombia's anti-labor, union-busting criminal activities; as well as Bush's snubbing his nose at all our international agreements, except, of course, the trade agreements, which enrich US corps at the expense of American and foreign labor.

Obama has slammed all of Latin America

because he's putting brakes on that always-nutty idea to have Mexican truckers running all over the USA?

What a politician! He knows how to find a hot-button issue to push himself up in the polls. Find me a person (a person now, not a corporation) who wants Mexican trucks on our highways. There aren't any. It's not just the teamsters. It's everybody.

disagree

Um - I think Obama's busy right now with other sh*t right now....like the economy n' stuff. Presumably, Lula and Calderon are too. Sorry conservatives, try another cheap shot. "Obama ignores evangelical calls to teach creationism in biology class." Oh my! He's sinking in the polls now!

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Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications—including the Economist and the New York Times.

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