Not That I'm Crabby

Various people, some of them serious, are debating whether Barack Obama betrayed some deep meaning when he referred to himself as a "citizen of the world." Conservatives are horrified by his nearly treasonous one-worldism, and libs are outraged that conservatives are horrified because Reagan and Kennedy used exactly the same phrase and what's so wrong wrong with peace, love and understanding anyway?

This is why, for now, I'm not paying day-to-day attention to politics. Both sides are positioning based on ultimately meaningless rhetorical differences, and they're doing it in a tone of voice that makes it sound like the fate of the world is at stake.

Going to a foreign country and describing yourself as a citizen of the world is no more meaningful than going to a friend's house and telling him you like his new couch, or like going to a Moose Lodge dance and wearing a funny hat like everyone else. It's a polite and ultimately meaningless thing, and both sides need to shut up and talk about something else.

Comments

[NewMexiKen]

Amen!

[Frank]

Personally, I don't care what he calls himself. What pissed me off about this trip was his refusal to meet with wounded soldiers at Ramstein and Landstuhl because he couldn't bring along the cameras or his political staffers. Followed by Andrea Mitchell's report this morning that Obama's people are claiming that the rules were changed for them because McCain asked his buddies in the Pentagon to sabotage Obama's trip.

Which is why I follow politics day-to-day, because otherwise all you hear are the ridiculous claims from his campaign and his wife, who is off limits by the way, that unless Obama becomes President, children are in danger.

The man could not be more conceited.

[catester]

At least we have someone who could potentially be President of the United States who is willing and able to be polite in foreign countries.

Refreshing.

[michael]

Can you do much more than over interpreting such meaningless little rhetorical details? In watching this campaign from overseas – not even being an US citizen – I have the feeling that everything that could be said has already been said. All there is to do is add little rhetorical flourishes. And then talk about them, reading into them all you want.

The same applies for little scheduling details (speaking in Germany, not the UK or France; not visiting Ramstein; etc.) which in the end don’t really add up to a all that meaningful characterisation of the candidate. I cannot imagine that they would. Especially considering the speculative nature of all those little tidbits. Maybe Obama was just really tired and dropped Ramstein because of that. Or he just doesn’t care about US soldiers. I would be inclined to pick the more reasonable one. Maybe I’m just naive.

That said, I’m not really sure why I still follow that whole thing. Actually I should have better things to do, like following politics in my own country. Maybe it’s a little bit like a car accident: you simply cannot look away even if you want to. Well, I’m a little bit more optimistic about that whole thing than one would be about car accidents.

[Pursuit]

Look, O'Bama lies about everything and Ramstein is just another of those. He couldn't very well say, "well I don't want to go because I can't take the media with me" could he?

So just add this too the list. By the way, there is a delightful little story told by one of his U of C sponsors who was trying to recruit him to the U back in the day. Apparently during the recruiting O'Bama didn't want to join the faculty, at least in part because he was writing a book "on voting rights". Well the U, still in recruiting mode gave him and office and a small stipend as a show of support. Guess what? Book morphed into a memior instead! Funny, dontchathink?

Look at the evidence on this guy or not folks, but don't say you weren't warned.

[Squidley]

I just talked with a friend of mine in the military who was an Obama supporter (yes, such do exist). Said friend was so offended by Obama's disrespectful behavior towards the troops, especially the fact that wouldn't spend any time with the wounded ones, that the friend dropped all support for him--er, I mean, Him.

Well, the military was never one of Obama's special interest groups to begin with--so what?