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Friday, June 20, 2014

Do Other Countries Really ‘Hate’ Obama as the wingnuts Claim?

Barack-Obama-e1392231845858Oh, how they hate Obama. I mean ‘hate’ with a capital “H.” We’re talking about most of the world’s population. I know this animus to be true because the wingnut echo chamber led by wildly overpaid, radical talk show hosts, Faux News, and pollsters tell me so, relentlessly.
Tracking this hate back to just after the shrub departure, a compilation of a wigged-out wingnut sites and others of a similar mien continuously examine the premise, why the world “Hates” Obama or euphemistically, U.S. “leadership.” One of the president’s shortcomings is apparently his refusal to fight every muslim nation on the planet. Whenever he doesn’t send your son or daughter to a far-off land to get butchered for essentially local civil-religious wars and multi-national oil interests, he’s accused of being an appeaser. His Nobel Peace Prize is held in total contempt by the warmongers. Trying to prevent needless deaths is perceived as “hostility to American power.”
Many of these statements are by some guy named Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow and a professional hater with the so-called “Freedom Center.” Greenfield is always promoted as being on the cusp of writing a book about the most recent alleged administration snafu consuming his small band of paranoids. I haven’t seen any best seller titles as yet, but I do spot a few largely ignored hate-pieces aimed at anything or anybody to do with the Obama administration. The Center was founded by former commie, David Horowitz, who has prospered nicely by pocketing a large percentage of his supporter and underwriter’s money (the Olin and Scaife Foundations among them). His salaries have approached a half-million annually for which he appears to do very little. Hate PAYS!!!
The latest Greenfield project is strongly opposing amnesty for young, undocumented Hispanics in the U.S. who are deemed responsible for more guns and gang violence. More guns? Your uncle Bubba has more firepower in his basement than all of Compton. Uh, Dan, the causation of gang violence is socio-economic. You see, when a group of people is repressed and not given the oppor…oh, never mind!!!
Other Obama-bashings include: His administration is a rolling disaster and “He’s failed from sea to shining sea.” A Pew Research Center survey is referenced that since 2009, favorable attitudes toward the U.S. had slipped everywhere in the world except Russia and Japan. American (read Obama)-hating surveys and lists are always appearing in assorted right-wing rags including the Wall Street Journal. “The 9 countries that hate us the most. The 10 countries that hate us the most. The 5 countries that hate us the most.” A sampling from assorted lists from last year includes Pakistan, Jordan, Palestinian territories, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, China, Argentina, Tunisia and Lebanon. Well, I guess I would agree with Tunisia, where the infamous “Arab Spring” took flight. Egypt would fluctuate with political and nationalist’s winds. Turkey, as Obama-basher is total nonsense. Anyone who has visited or has been stationed in that country would absolutely agree that the Turkish population is very friendly toward Americans.
If Congress would tell the American people the truth, they would be forced to concede that Turkey was a major player in the reason for the Benghazi attack as the late Ambassador Stevens, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar met multiple times in secret to plot moves against certain Middle East governments.
If the Greeks hate Obama, they sure hide it well. Hard economic times can blip up a poll, but hate Obama? Not a chance. China can’t afford to hate the president with their huge investment in the U.S. and vice-versa. China’s young population is growing more Americanized by the day.
The presence of Jordan on the list is absurd beyond absurd. Historically, the late King Hussein, who was married to an American by the way, was one of the great leaders of modern times, balancing the interests of numerous bellicose allies and enemies alike. Upon assuming his leadership role that he was to hold for 46 years before his 1999 death from cancer (treated in the U.S.), Hussein single-handedly pulled his countrymen up by their bootstraps and by any civil and social measure, improved the lot of Jordanian citizens enormously.
Current leader, King Abdullah the second, recently spent a few days in Washington, hitting Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the State Department before meeting with President Obama at Rancho Mirage for some statecraft and a weekend of golf for the president. Amendments to Jordan’s anti-terrorism law were passed a couple of months ago, calling for the criminalization of any Jordanians associated with terrorist groups. Japan, hating Obama? What misleading tripe. Pakistan may indeed think ill of the president from time to time, but, as in every other instance of Mid-East hatred referenced in these polls, it all depends upon whom you ask. Is it a representative sample? Is the poll random or targeted? And who is paying the pollster for desired results? Is there anything easier to manipulate than a poll? The answer (not counting viewers of Faux News) is a resounding, NO!
When I hear anything come out of a Rupert Murdoch (News Corps-owned property such as the Wall Street Journal, I immediately dismiss the findings and their special interests irrelevancy.
A Gallup poll naming most of the above countries was done in cooperation with the Meridian International Center. The shrub’s former Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, who was a driving force behind the Central America Free Trade Agreement, now heads Meridian. CAFTA’s endless negatives are accurately and comprehensively listed here at a website called “Global Exchange.”
Let’s get to the objective truth of who “hates” Barack Obama. My daughter, an International Law Attorney, just returned from The Hague. She was a U.S. delegate to the “Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).” Members from every corner of the globe gather to discuss and occasionally act on such esoteric ‘conventions’ as treaty considerations of Service, Evidence, Access to Justice, Enforcing Judgments and drafting Handbooks. It lasts a few days and participants not only tend to the business at hand, there’s plenty of time to interact and socialize. There are representatives of the most important of the 76 official member countries and an additional 68 signatories to one or more of the Hague conventions. These people don’t need partisan push-polls to accurately read the political tea leaves of their citizenry.
My next observation is anecdotal and not at all scientific, but it’s way closer to the truth than Gallup and their global power-mad running partner, Meridian. Here is my daughter’s assessment of the attendee’s feelings about U.S. President Obama. Quote: “They love him.” No qualifications. Everybody she talked to loved Obama. Conversely they unanimously expressed something largely ignored by many of these international polls and certainly on Faux and the talk shows. They all still harbor a deep hatred of the shrub.
It’s important to know that my daughter is largely apolitical. I hadn’t even thought to suggest the question of Obama to her before she left. But she’s as close as I’ll get to objective and she’s chocked full of integrity and honesty. She didn’t give me the answer she thought I wanted to hear; she just passed on the truth.

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