Category Archives: United Kingdom
Exceptional Exceptionalism
Putin wrote an op-ed in the NYT last week mocking Obama and the idea of American Exceptionalism. He scored bonus points because everyone knows Obama himself is not so wild about the idea. He thinks America is exceptional in the same way Britain and Greece are exceptional. Which is to say, not very. But that didn’t stop him last week from asking Americans to support an attack on Syrian president Assad – with something more than a pinprick, yet unbelievably small – because we are exceptional.
The abuse continued this week when a Russian minister claimed the Navy Ship Yard shooting was an example of American Exceptionalism.
Exceptional and Weird
Maureen Dowd had a few thoughts of her own about the president concerning the partisan speech he delivered while the shooting was still going on:
“The man who connected so electrically and facilely in 2008, causing Americans to overlook his thin résumé, cannot seem to connect anymore… Top Democrats who used to consider Obama one cool cat now muse that he’s “one weird cat,” as one big shot put it.”
When the going gets tough the weird get going.
Syria Red Line
Who says that President Obama’s words don’t matter. He warned the president of Syria not to gas his own people. A gas attack meant crossing a red line that would trigger a U.S. response. Apparently we’re down with killing 100,000 Syrians by other means.
Anyway, It looks like Assad has jumped the Red Line. Now we have to respond or lose credibility and, according to the polls, the American people have no stomach for another war.
Going it Alone in Syria
Not only that, the British Parliament voted not to help. It’s the first time they’ve denied the Prime Minister a request for military backing since 1782, when Parliament gave up on the American colonies! Maybe Obama should have kept the Churchill bust.
So far our leader says he’ll go ahead without the British, UN, or United States Congress. The French are still in. Freedom Fries any one?
Royal Pain
Margaret Thatcher Funeral
The vice president of the United States decides tie votes in the senate and goes to funerals. President Obama had nice things to say about Margaret Thatcher but chose not to attend her funeral. Nor did he elect to send Joe Biden.
Some Brits took this as another snub by Obama; most probably considered it a blessing.
Iron Lady
Maggie Thatcher died Monday morning. She was preceded in death by Ronald Reagan and John Paul II, the trinity that won the cold war.
