Fouad Ajami: The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama - WSJ.com (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574558300500152682.html)

By FOUAD AJAMI (http://forums.somd.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=FOUAD+AJAMI&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND)
'He talks too much," a Saudi academic in Jeddah, who had once been smitten with Barack Obama, recently observed to me of America's 44th president. He has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory.

He is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this region, and in the commentaries offered by the press, the theme is one of disappointment. In the Arab-Islamic world, Barack Obama has come down to earth.

The messiah has landed! :popcorn:

Fouad Ajami: The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama - WSJ.com (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574558300500152682.html)

By FOUAD AJAMI (http://forums.somd.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=FOUAD+AJAMI&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND)
'He talks too much," a Saudi academic in Jeddah, who had once been smitten with Barack Obama, recently observed to me of America's 44th president. He has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory.

He is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this region, and in the commentaries offered by the press, the theme is one of disappointment. In the Arab-Islamic world, Barack Obama has come down to earth.

The messiah has landed! :popcorn:

I've been saying this forever, especially to young liberals, for whom "liberal" and "conservative" has meant Clinton and Obama, and George W.

Liberals think that because other nations dislike things about America they don't like, that they're kindred spirits with them, and all that is needed to regain their friendship is to elect one of their own.

"It's ok to love America, now. We're not Republicans".

They don't care. Liberals think they do, but they don't. Europeans SAY they do, but their raison d'etre is to oppose the U.S. We could surrender the whole nation to them, and we still wouldn't be buddies with them. They're snobs. They give international awards to one another, they do sports mostly with themselves and some of their friends abroad. They're insular.

Other nations? They hate us for a whole laundry list of reasons. One is the domination of our pop culture, and that doesn't have anything to do with politics. Another is the perception that we are war-mongering, rich, wasteful, arrogant and immoral. After 9-11, they did polls across the world, and many persons from many nations held us in very low regard, even as they sympathized with the attacks. Most of those polled had never met an American - they based their opinions off of television and movies.

It is one of the things I do like about Republicans in general and conservatives, specifically. They don't go about ingratiating themselves, typically, to foreign governments. Liberals think it's arrogant, but the fact is, it doesn't do any good otherwise. Nations are like corporations - you don't have "friends". You have allies. And you do not change world opinion based on not signing or signing a treaty. Your average citizen in the world doesn't care or know of such things, and being a Democrat or Republican means nothing to them.

I've been saying this forever, especially to young liberals, for whom "liberal" and "conservative" has meant Clinton and Obama, and George W.

Liberals think that because other nations dislike things about America they don't like, that they're kindred spirits with them, and all that is needed to regain their friendship is to elect one of their own.

"It's ok to love America, now. We're not Republicans".

They don't care. Liberals think they do, but they don't. Europeans SAY they do, but their raison d'etre is to oppose the U.S. We could surrender the whole nation to them, and we still wouldn't be buddies with them. They're snobs. They give international awards to one another, they do sports mostly with themselves and some of their friends abroad. They're insular.

Other nations? They hate us for a whole laundry list of reasons. One is the domination of our pop culture, and that doesn't have anything to do with politics. Another is the perception that we are war-mongering, rich, wasteful, arrogant and immoral. After 9-11, they did polls across the world, and many persons from many nations held us in very low regard, even as they sympathized with the attacks. Most of those polled had never met an American - they based their opinions off of television and movies.

It is one of the things I do like about Republicans in general and conservatives, specifically. They don't go about ingratiating themselves, typically, to foreign governments. Liberals think it's arrogant, but the fact is, it doesn't do any good otherwise. Nations are like corporations - you don't have "friends". You have allies. And you do not change world opinion based on not signing or signing a treaty. Your average citizen in the world doesn't care or know of such things, and being a Democrat or Republican means nothing to them.

So true, indeed! :buddies:

He is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this region...I'd say it goes beyond that region. As I said a couple weeks ago, I will bet many Germans were put off by his refusal to attend the anniversary of the fall of the Wall. I think those sentiments will spread as other nations watch Oblahma clumsily drag the U.S. into the socialist pit, and as they simultaneously realize he is in this for the good of himself not "the world community".