PrintJuly 19, 2008
Obama's Magical Mystery Tour Begins
It is doubtful that too many ordinary Afghans know or care who Barack Obama is. Nevertheless, the messiah disembarked in Kabul this morning after a brief stop in Kuwait to visit the troops. He is scheduled to travel to a base in eastern Afghanistan today and get a briefing from the military on the situation and meet with President Karzai tomorrow.
From there - well, let's let CNN tell you because the way they report it, it's almost like a victory lap for the candidate:
Sen. Barack Obama is set to step onto the world's stage. During his trip to the Middle East and Europe, Obama will visit: Jordan Israel (with a trip to the West Bank-Ramallah) Germany France The United Kingdom. Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday and is slated to visit Iraq, although for security reasons, no public schedule for the visit has been released.
A campaign stunt is being reported as if it were the opening act of the Obama drama - the hero restoring respect and love for America in the world. They are already declaring his trip a triumph before he starts.
Except America has never lost respect - save for those who see it as convenient and politically advantageous to make that argument - nor is it true we are much more hated than we usually have been for the past 30 years or so. This narrative put forward by the left that somehow Obama is going to come in and make people like us "again" is absurd. I've written about this here at AT and on my own blog. The idea that "the world was with us" after 9/11 is a false, it's a chimera that the left finds convenient to push because it plays into the American people's fear of being disliked.
The crowds in Europe will no doubt be huge and enthusiastic. And why not? Obama is promising to subsume our interests to those of the Europeans at the UN while all but abandoning our status as a superpower - especially if our interests conflict with others. If I were a European, I'd be escatic too.
I don't think too many Americans will care one way or another how Obama is received so it is doubtful he will get much of a bounce from this trip. Besides, the American people are smart enough to know that one trip abroad does not a president make. They will judge Obama on how he annunicates his foreign policy and not on grandstanding tactics performed overseas.
From there - well, let's let CNN tell you because the way they report it, it's almost like a victory lap for the candidate:
Sen. Barack Obama is set to step onto the world's stage. During his trip to the Middle East and Europe, Obama will visit: Jordan Israel (with a trip to the West Bank-Ramallah) Germany France The United Kingdom. Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday and is slated to visit Iraq, although for security reasons, no public schedule for the visit has been released.
A campaign stunt is being reported as if it were the opening act of the Obama drama - the hero restoring respect and love for America in the world. They are already declaring his trip a triumph before he starts.
Except America has never lost respect - save for those who see it as convenient and politically advantageous to make that argument - nor is it true we are much more hated than we usually have been for the past 30 years or so. This narrative put forward by the left that somehow Obama is going to come in and make people like us "again" is absurd. I've written about this here at AT and on my own blog. The idea that "the world was with us" after 9/11 is a false, it's a chimera that the left finds convenient to push because it plays into the American people's fear of being disliked.
The crowds in Europe will no doubt be huge and enthusiastic. And why not? Obama is promising to subsume our interests to those of the Europeans at the UN while all but abandoning our status as a superpower - especially if our interests conflict with others. If I were a European, I'd be escatic too.
I don't think too many Americans will care one way or another how Obama is received so it is doubtful he will get much of a bounce from this trip. Besides, the American people are smart enough to know that one trip abroad does not a president make. They will judge Obama on how he annunicates his foreign policy and not on grandstanding tactics performed overseas.
