Dueling presidents in Europe
Ah, that Obama. Far be it from him to retire from the limelight and let his successor have his day. Coinciding with Trump’s trip to Europe, Obama has decided that it behooves him to go, too:
Merkel, the most powerful leader in Europe, first met Obama in Berlin discussing democracy and faith at the Brandenburg Gate, meters away from the path of the Cold War wall which once split the city, at an event hosted by the German protestant church.
Then she will be in Brussels where she will encounter Trump at the NATO summit. The current US president didn’t even shake her hand in her Oval Office visit in March. So Thursday’s meeting will be a chance for a do-over after their odd couple optics during her visit to Washington.
Note the “objective” way CNN covers this, repeating an absurd meme that the MSM was pushing during Merkel’s earlier visit despite the fact that Trump actually did shake her hand.
Speaking of coverage, it’s instructive to see the varying headlines on the current Obama-in-Europe story. CNN opts for the relatively neutral headline “1 day, 2 presidents: Merkel meets with Obama, then Trump.” The Guardian prefers “Trump debuts in Europe as Obama returns to stir nostalgia for the old days.” That’s probably the truth; much of Europe probably longs for Obama to return to office. The Guardian piece calls the confluence of the two trips “apparently unintentional,” and I suppose that may even be true (the Obama Foundation—there’s an Obama Foundation already?—claims that the invite came before the election).
The writers at the Guardian certainly miss Obama; the whole piece is drenched with yearning for the ex-president. And they are not alone:
Regarding Obama’s Berlin visit, the highpoint of a season of celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant church, the Leipziger Zeitung wrote that his presence in Germany would be like that of a “healer”.
“Already he is a painfully missed ex-president,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial, describing him as an “eloquent, charismatic preacher” ”“ qualities it suggested were sorely lacking in Trump.
“Healer”—that’s pretty funny, actually.
The Daily Wire, on the other hand (not an Obama-friendly site) calls its article “So Sad: Pathetic ‘Look At Me’ Obama Tries To Upstage Trump’s First Trip Abroad.” Instead of suggesting that the visits are coincidental, based on the timing of the Merkel invite, it points out a lot of other “coincidences” on this trip:
Guess where the Obamas picked to “vacation” ”” at the exact time that Trump was meeting Pope Benedict [sic—it’s Pope Francis] in the Vatican and heading to Sicily for the G7? Yup. Italy…
Throughout Trump’s trip abroad ”” first in Saudi Arabia, then Israel, then Italy and now Belgium ”” the Obamas have been traipsing across Europe as well, drawing coverage and loving the spotlight. Obama made sure he would make the news on Tuesday ”” when Trump was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ”” just by taking a walk through Bolgona.
Well, if Obama’s in Europe taking a vacation, the press is going to follow him like a bunch of puppy dogs, whether he seeks them or not. But the following from Obama is very pointed and very much an attack on his successor:
In Berlin, as he does everywhere, Obama went into a full-throated defense of his failed presidency. And, of course, he railed against the man who succeeded him, saying “We can’t isolate ourselves. We can’t hide behind a wall.”
It’s also absurd. No one’s isolating us, and no one is “hiding behind” a wall. I hadn’t noticed Obama dispensing with his own Secret Service protection, either.
If those corrupt Euros convince Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement re CAGW, I will go ballistic. The smart thing for Trump to do would be to submit it to the Senate as a treaty and watch it fail. Then Trump could say it wasn’t his fault. Have Merkel and Marcon lobby the Senate.
And Obama will never leave us. Loser.
Have you noticed that the democrat ex presidents cannot just go home and shut up when they leave office? They remind me of Chuck Schumer (democrat) who can’t stay away from the TV cameras.
We will be stuck with this pontificating blowhard for decades.
Obama owes Merkel a debt of gratitude for colluding in the coverup of collateral damage from his elective wars and promoting immigration reform for refugees. Also, they probably discussed the fate of Ukraine following yet another elective regime change that forced catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. What is it with leftists. elective procedures, and catastrophes?
Why Merkel let Obama ruin her country is a mystery to me. He caused enough damage here.
Iran with nukes and Muslims terrorizing Europe; heck of a legacy Barack
The best thing Trump can do is to totally ignore bho. He gets enough attention as it is.
The Berlin thing was organized by the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. I’m not sure Merkel invited him. The Church leaders themselves are very do-gooder and they get their news from CNN, NYT, and Wapo, or at least German reporters seem to. Obama is very appealing to Greens and pacifist types, who probably believe that the rest of us are racists. They probably also wanted to give him a chance to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, since Merkel wouldn’t let him before.
Merkel herself is very anti-Putin, so she may be wary of Trump because of all the Russian s**t she hears. I hope they talk about Turkey, because she has more experience dealing with Erdogan than anyone and she has tried to be tough with him without alienating all the Turks who live in Germany,even though many of these are Attaturk Turks who don’t like what Erdogan is doing to the country.
It’s really hard to tell what Merkel thinks herself about many issues because she works behind the scene on so many things to avoid giving her coalition partner (SPD) much time in the spotlight. It will be interesting to see how she handles Trump. I hope he is smart enough not to feed the media image of him. I doubt that she was very impressed by Obama’s red line in Syria, because his inaction plus Turkey’s power plays are what pushed her to open up to all the refugees. We’ll see .
I actually hope in the near future Muslims take over Europe, progressives deserve to live under the sharia
“Can’t hide behind a wall”, says the ex president,
who is reportedly having a wall built around his D.C. home, and (I think) ordered raising the fence around the White House when he was POTUS.
Obama and the (western) Euros are a perfect fit. Let them fawn over each other. In fact, it would be just fine if he moved there and went full continental.
Euros will hate Trump because he pulls no punches. They have become so comfortable with the U.S. quietly shouldering the defense load, that they think that is the natural order. Even when they offer token cooperation in some joint venture, the U.S. has to provide the airlift. They are self imposed military eunuchs.
Who really cares whether Merkel and Trump pretend to play nice? As far as I can determine, Merkel virtually sold her country out to Muslim infiltration, although she does makes noises about partially closing the barn door at this late date. Worse, she seemed hell bent on taking the rest of Europe down that road with her.
On the other hand the Poles, and others in the east who remember tyranny, will find Trump to be a breath of fresh air.
During WWII and after, American blacks were regarded as exotic, fascinating creatures in Europe because so few Europeans had ever seen a real black person. Apparently that infantile fascination persists.
There was also a time when upper class Germans were impressed by the manliness of the American cowboy, sought to emulate him. Paul Bond, a superb bootmaker in Nogales AZ, now deceased, used to make boots for them. Made me a few too. They last forever and are a whole lot better for feet than pointes!
I figure today Euros like pointes a lot.
European press of course talks about “President Obama” but never “President Trump”, always just “Trump”…
Here’s Bloomberg on the G-7. Pretty nauseating.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-27/macron-erupts-onto-world-stage-with-trump-snub-and-a-bromance
Another reason why I am glad that Hillary did not win – the rumors of her appointing Obama to the Supreme court would have been too much – just WAY too much.
Obama’s “just have to break his silence” is bad enough; I want to gag just thinking about him being on the Supreme Court and offering his opinion on EVERYTHING with the MSM lapping up his every word like a puppy liking an ice cream cone.
yuck!
“If you are not acquainted with the past, then perhaps you think these are not the best of times, and maybe even worse than ever. But if you expand your vision and look, you will find that if you know other times, it puts it all in perspective.” – Joe Bastardi
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/49308
Applies to life as well as the weather, it seems.
Re: trump didn’t shake Merkel’s hand.
The msm IS overplaying it, but the photos at Red State are not the specific event that is being referenced.
IIRC, it was when they were sitting down at the WH for a photo op.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-angela-merkel-no-handshake-236175
It could well be that trump didn’t hear her. So, hard to say it was a snub. Though the “air” was far from “warm”.
But this incident is much less subject to interpretation – definitely a show of lack of respect…
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/05/25/president-trump-shoved-montenegro-prime-minister-nato/102144808/
Is it the world’s biggest deal around? No.
However, it has an impact, as it is not just the Montenegro PM that gets the “message”, but all the leaders.
And, we’ve had several indicators (e.g. beginning with his callout / cussout? of the Australian PM) that, for a man who is a “deal maker”, he seems to go out of his way to make it tougher for other leaders to want to come to the table.
Troubling.
Worse, given his track record so far, it seems more likely that trump as a “deal maker” is nothing more than a media myth, a public persona.
Big Maq:
Yes, I’m aware those photos are of a different event.
But it was the same trip, and there was plenty of handshaking. Therefore whatever happened with the missed handshake later on was some sort of glitch rather than the snub the MSM was trying to make it out to be.
“Healer, eloquent charsimatic preacher”
More like snake oil salesman.