I’ll answer for Neo by paraphrasing Prof Mike Adams of UNC-Wilmington:

“Last week, I was jogging along. In front of me, a man was walking a dog. As I watched, the dog stopped, squatted, and unloaded onto the path.

As I passed the pile of crap, I did not need to sniff it, touch it, or take a bite out of it. I guess you could say that I know crap when I see it.”

Obama should never, never, have placed himself in that position. Chavez played him like a violin, and the message was not lost on Latin America—or the world.

When did it stop to work? “Plan Colombia” has been fairly successful in reducing the power of FARC in Colombia- much to the chagrin of Thugo. US foreign policy also worked in getting Saddam out of Iraq, and it also worked in the Surge in Iraq. Also note that in early 2007 Senator Obama introduced a resolution to get combat troops out of Iraq by March 2008, which would have knee-capped the Surge.

Someone who has worked to sabotage US foreign policy- and if passed Obama’s resolution would have sabotaged the Surge- cannot then state that US foreign policy doesn’t work, at least it one wants credibility.

Let me say first off that I supported President Bush throughout his eight terms as President, and I am unapologetic in my criticisms of President Obama.

BUT conservatives and those who supported Bush and weathered 8 years of Bush Derangement Syndrome should not be so quick to fall into the trapping of doing the same thing to President Obama.

My personal inclination is to go there myself. Everything about Obama offends the hell out of me, from his constantly stern facial expressions to all the outrageous bills he’s pushed in Congress, not least is the bill mandating community service for people of all ages (last I checked it was 18-65 years old) and having our children indoctrinated and wearing quasi-military uniforms. That is bad.

BUT I think Obama got a raw deal from the conservatives on this whole Chavez affair. Like at the full video of when Chavez gave Obama the book. Chavez popped unexpectedly into a conference and handed Obama a book. Obama graciously smiled and accepted the book. He did the diplomatic thing. The alternative would be – what? – to refuse the book and boot Chavez out of a conference consisting of Latin Americans?

Look at the Bill O’Reilly segment on another meeting between Obama and Chavez after that book incident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOhZT1aL9U

It almost looked like Obama was reprimanded Chavez like a teacher wagging his finger at a child. This is certainly not the impression you got from Drudge and Hannity and other talking heads. News is spun like crazy nowadays.

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like being played the fool. Not be Drudge. Not by anyone.

I suffered through 8 years of Bush Derangement Syndrome, defending Bush even when his acts were indefensible, and I’ll be darned if I’m going to fall into doing Obama Derangement Syndrome. And it’s my opinion that for those who clearly saw the BDS and who railed against it should know better than to fall into that same behavior against Obama. I’m not talking about you specifically, Neo, but for conservatives in general.

If you want to criticize Obama, you need not look further than his actions and the bills he’s proposing. It’s a target rich environment. That’s clean and honest. No need to froth at the mouth with the mention of Obama’s name.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090421/USA_Border_090421/20090421?hub=TopStories

OMG

That is an opinion that could be held. But I hope you can understand that many people are very uncomfortable with legitimizing Venezuela and Cuba’s dictators as it is in line with his PAST associations.

Martin wrote, “The idea being that if we listen to them they will listen to us.”

If only the craigslist killer was listened to! Maybe he’d listen to us. If only that Muslim man who killed his daughters and then his wife LISTENED to his wife pleading with him to stop (I wish I had the link to the story) the honor killing. Problem is Martin. There is evil in the world. We are not it!

Venezuela’s dictator is evil. He is causing so much pain and suffering in his country. There is nothing he has to offer us. Nothing.

I hope you can hear us before we weaken ourselves too much and strengthen evil leaders off the charts.
Martin wrote, “I think he recognizes that the old US dominated world order no longer works and is trying to be more open and accessible”

I think we should try an expirement. Reach out to low lifes in prison – find the ones who will be leaving soon. Make YOUR HOME more OPEN and accessible. Yes, that is the direction you should go!

The president announced that his team must find a way to pass the agreement. With world trade down 80%, the pact opens new markets to the U.S. He demanded immediate action, asking Colombia’s trade minister to fly to Washington this week.
Then it got even better: Obama invited Uribe to the White House and promised to visit Colombia himself, allowing the Colombians to lay out for him their vast economic and social progress, and their desire to integrate into global trade.
In a final flourish, Obama scribbled his autograph onto President Uribe’s notes, writing: “To President Uribe, with admiration! Barack H. Obama.” A smiling Uribe showed it to reporters. Given Uribe’s discretion, it’s likely that Obama asked him to do that.

This time, Obama apparently did the right thing.

http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search can also be used.