It does amuse me that British Prime Ministers have to go to America to get a standing ovation. Tony Blair did it and now Gordon Brown has done it with some speech or other about the Recession. What he said i don't know and don't much care because it became obvious a long time ago that he hasn't got a clue what to do about it.
The man who made such a monumental cock up with the tax bands here that ended up costing the Government millions rectifying it, trying to tell everyone else how to control their finances? Would give me a chuckle if it wasn't so serious.
Although not a foregone conclusion, it is highly likely that Brown and his Labour party will be catapulted out of office when he gets around to calling a General Election so i'm not sure what Obama gets out of palling up with Brown. If he wanted a European leader to share the stage with, why not pick the German or French leaders who will be around longer than Brown and have more clout with the rest of the EU.
Brown has much more to gain from associating himself with Obama whose star is still rising, Brown possibly hoping that he can get some of the reflected glory from the more glamorous American leader but Brown is damaged goods.
His determination to keep filling the banks coffers to the tune of billions while houses are repossessed and jobs lost is not a vote winner and doesn't seem to be making any difference to anyone else but the bankers who continue to pay themselves large bonuses.
Obama would have done well to avoid Brown for the next twelve months or at the very least researched Browns form when it comes to recent financial matters because we could have told him, it isn't very good.
11 comments:
I can't think of a situation off of the top of my head where an American President could win points by hanging out with the President of France, even if he were the best French President ever. I think that France always costs an American president points.
And Germans aren't that much higher on the list.
I think that the circumstances here in the States are different. There are 50 states and 300 million people.
Depends what the American President is after. If he wants to get to the EU for any reason, France and Gdermnay are your men. Britain and Brown has very little to offer from where i am sitting.
Given that the U.S. is on the nose with most people in the world (because it caused the current world economic and financial crisis), I don't understand why Brown would bother going there at all.
Given that there are 300 million heavily indoctrinated, ill-informed, almost bankrupt people there led by a bunch of greedy political ideologues and warmongers who want to control the world, what is there to gain?
He'd be better to visit the Scandinavian countries where peace is a priority as is looking after their citizens!
Paul,
I agree with you that it is absolutely essential for the American President to please foreign leaders that he wants to make some agreement with. But this will never score him many domestic points.
Things that are "international" within Europe are about the very similar to things that are "interstate" here as a result of the large size of things.
Further, our four international neighbors are Canada, Mexico, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The latter two are our perpetual allies, like the English Channel to the British but orders of magnitude greater. The former two are generally our allies and are not military powers.
The States are built perfectly for geopolitical isolationism. It is a shame that we haven't kept to this more often.
But nonetheless, these factors make internal issues an order of magnitude more important than they might be in Europe.
-Nog
Very sweeping statement david. You might want to adjust your filter. Seems that most of the Americans i have met doing this over the past few weeks are anything but ill informed warmongers. Granted it is a very small sample but they seem very well informed to me and just as against the things that yourself are against. I know many ill informed war mongering europeans that i wouldn't give the time of day to so there is good and bad everywhere.
Gee, Paul, if you can make a judgment like this after a few weeks of dealing with a tiny handful of right-wing American commenters, what will you be capable of after a couple of months?
Wow!
You seem far too rabied in your condemnation of all Americans David.
If you can personally vouch that there are 300 million heavily indoctrinated, ill-informed, almost bankrupt people in America i will agree, otherwise i think you need to calm down, stop getting so excited and not make statements that are frankly ridiculous.
What exactly does 'rabied' mean, Paul?
And have you heard of American 'exceptionalism' and American 'hegemony'?
Could I recommend you visit Information Clearing House and Common Dreams and The Smirking Chimp and get a few clues about what Americans really think.
Over and out!
...and David's irrationally racist, deliberately insulting and vastly conceited worldview proceeds to alienate yet another well-adjusted blogger.
Don't let this little fact put you off your game though, Davey-boy. Remember you're still right about everything, always.
Dog piles are so boring.
That he even tries to justify his irrational and bigoted view makes me wonder what drives him. I agree Annie, boring and to be avoided.
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