PRESIDENT OBAMA SHUNS WORLD LEADERS
Life often boils down to how an individual perceives things. The old “glass half empty or half full” argument often holds sway on issues great and small, not to mention the appropriate way of pronouncing potato, tomato and schedule when thinking of a few words whose pronunciations sometimes vary according to perception.
That said, yesterday President Barack H. Obama was in New York City to address the United Nations. While in the Big Apple, the president chose not to meet privately with a number of world leaders barely a week after he chose not to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president instead appeared on ABC’s “The View,” a move that has drawn the ire of the conservative pundit world. Yesterday afternoon, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity took frequent jabs at the president for his “mistreatment of an ally” (Israel) and his decision to meet with celebrities such as Jay-Z/Beyonce as opposed to world leaders.
Now the fact that Limbaugh and his ilk are unhappy with the president is of no shock as I am convinced that if the president held a press conference and announced that he personally had discovered a cure for Cancer, that the same men and women would find a reason to suggest why Cancer isn’t so bad after all. In sum—with those folks the president can never win and had he taken a full day to meet with each Middle East head of state, this crowd would have asked their listeners why our president must make concessions by meeting with world leaders.
But of interest was the chorus of criticism emanating from journalists and pundits that are usually fair or even supportive of the Obama administration, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and David Gergen. Both Cooper and Gergen expressed concern that the president chose the view over a series of meetings and opined that in what is still a tight race, that doing so could crack what has previously been a pretty solid record on foreign policy.
Again, perception matters, and at the end of the day, while Americans understand that the president is extremely busy with running a nation and a campaign, the president has to understand that yesterday provided the Romney campaign an opportunity to take a legitimate whack at him and he should expect to hear about this from debate moderators in the weeks ahead.
OBAMA WIDE LEAD
Other than Fox new contributor and former Clinton White House adviser Dick Morris, who yesterday took to the airwaves and stated his belief that Romney will dominate Obama in the Electoral College, most recent polls suggest that the president’s lead over Mitt Romney in the critical swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida is widening. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, the president is even keeping voters who express disappointment over his first term.
While the overwhelming majority of registered Republicans are likely to vote for Romney, the concern that Romney must have going forward is the “perception” of his recent comments about 47 percent of Obama suporters being freeloaders as well as the Libyan uprising that claimed the life of four American citizens, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. And while Romney’s surrogates continue to suggest that his 47 percent comments were taken out of context, most voters, particularly those concerned about unemployment and health care, see through the deception and harbor grave concerns about whether Romney, who came off in condescending tone, would be best situated to address their concerns.
The same holds true for foreign policy, where Romney’s taking of Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra simply does not address the reality that in 2012, a war weary American people have to ask whether a President Romney would jump to fight at each and every opportunity.
OBAMA/ROMNEY DEBATES
They may not be a recrudescence of the Abraham Lincoln/Stephen Douglas debates, but I, for one, am looking forward to seeing Obama and Romney go head-to-head next month.
There is an air of confidence that I am noticing from the right wing punditocracy that suggests that Romney, who they opine is a more experienced debater, will dominate the president next month. In fairness, Romney has a ton of experience in the last year alone, where it seemed as if there was a Republican debate every week in the run-up to the primary season.
And I admit that Romney did handle himself very well in debate formats that center more upon one’s ability to touch upon quick hitting answers to complex questions.
The president, generally known as a brilliant orator, has a penchant for being long winded—no surprise as many lawyers are (as is lawyer Romney when in a non-debate format).
But I still say that the president should not be under estimated. I am sure that some of the under-estimation stems from the fact that perception wise, some folks won’t say it, but Romney is considered to be smarter than Obama. Nevermind the fact that both were educated at some of the finest schools in America, the perception for some, again, is that Romney is smarter. It reminds me of one of my first criminal trials when after I had finished my closing argument, a visiting and elderly senior judge called me to the bench afterwards and said that “I was the most articulate colored fellow he had ever heard.” The judge then asked where I had attended law school and when I said the University of Florida, he shot back “I should have known—Go Gators!” Now I did not take offense to the “colored” comment because the judge was in his late 70′s and during his life, colored had been the official designation (thus the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). But I must admit that I wondered how he had lived almost eight decades and had never encountered any other “articulate colored fellows” particularly when I knew thousands of the same?
Digressing, while Obama does not often get the credit for being a policy wonk like Bill Clinton, I have read numerous accounts that he has the same Clintonesque ability to read volumes of information and to analyze it in short order. And I have no doubt that Obama’s natural intelligence, coupled with advisers who I am sure are preparing him to give short, quick comments and responses, that he will be more than up to the challenge that a debate-tested Romney will pose.
NFL REPLACEMENT REFS
I fell asleep early on Monday night and missed the end of the Seattle-Green Bay football game, but suffice it to say that Seattle did not score a touchdown. Period. The NFL and the regular refs need to come to an agreement really soon as the lack of clarity and professionalism on display on that final call is disturbing. Even more disturbing was the NFL’s shoulder shrug in the wake of the brewing controversy. The teams—and fans—deserve better.
Life often boils down to how an individual perceives things. The old “glass half empty or half full” argument often holds sway on issues great and small, not to mention the appropriate way of pronouncing potato, tomato and schedule when thinking of a few words whose pronunciations sometimes vary according to perception.
That said, yesterday President Barack H. Obama was in New York City to address the United Nations. While in the Big Apple, the president chose not to meet privately with a number of world leaders barely a week after he chose not to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president instead appeared on ABC’s “The View,” a move that has drawn the ire of the conservative pundit world. Yesterday afternoon, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity took frequent jabs at the president for his “mistreatment of an ally” (Israel) and his decision to meet with celebrities such as Jay-Z/Beyonce as opposed to world leaders.
Now the fact that Limbaugh and his ilk are unhappy with the president is of no shock as I am convinced that if the president held a press conference and announced that he personally had discovered a cure for Cancer, that the same men and women would find a reason to suggest why Cancer isn’t so bad after all. In sum—with those folks the president can never win and had he taken a full day to meet with each Middle East head of state, this crowd would have asked their listeners why our president must make concessions by meeting with world leaders.
But of interest was the chorus of criticism emanating from journalists and pundits that are usually fair or even supportive of the Obama administration, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and David Gergen. Both Cooper and Gergen expressed concern that the president chose the view over a series of meetings and opined that in what is still a tight race, that doing so could crack what has previously been a pretty solid record on foreign policy.
Again, perception matters, and at the end of the day, while Americans understand that the president is extremely busy with running a nation and a campaign, the president has to understand that yesterday provided the Romney campaign an opportunity to take a legitimate whack at him and he should expect to hear about this from debate moderators in the weeks ahead.
OBAMA WIDE LEAD
Other than Fox new contributor and former Clinton White House adviser Dick Morris, who yesterday took to the airwaves and stated his belief that Romney will dominate Obama in the Electoral College, most recent polls suggest that the president’s lead over Mitt Romney in the critical swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida is widening. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, the president is even keeping voters who express disappointment over his first term.
While the overwhelming majority of registered Republicans are likely to vote for Romney, the concern that Romney must have going forward is the “perception” of his recent comments about 47 percent of Obama suporters being freeloaders as well as the Libyan uprising that claimed the life of four American citizens, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. And while Romney’s surrogates continue to suggest that his 47 percent comments were taken out of context, most voters, particularly those concerned about unemployment and health care, see through the deception and harbor grave concerns about whether Romney, who came off in condescending tone, would be best situated to address their concerns.
The same holds true for foreign policy, where Romney’s taking of Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra simply does not address the reality that in 2012, a war weary American people have to ask whether a President Romney would jump to fight at each and every opportunity.
OBAMA/ROMNEY DEBATES
They may not be a recrudescence of the Abraham Lincoln/Stephen Douglas debates, but I, for one, am looking forward to seeing Obama and Romney go head-to-head next month.
There is an air of confidence that I am noticing from the right wing punditocracy that suggests that Romney, who they opine is a more experienced debater, will dominate the president next month. In fairness, Romney has a ton of experience in the last year alone, where it seemed as if there was a Republican debate every week in the run-up to the primary season.
And I admit that Romney did handle himself very well in debate formats that center more upon one’s ability to touch upon quick hitting answers to complex questions.
The president, generally known as a brilliant orator, has a penchant for being long winded—no surprise as many lawyers are (as is lawyer Romney when in a non-debate format).
But I still say that the president should not be under estimated. I am sure that some of the under-estimation stems from the fact that perception wise, some folks won’t say it, but Romney is considered to be smarter than Obama. Nevermind the fact that both were educated at some of the finest schools in America, the perception for some, again, is that Romney is smarter. It reminds me of one of my first criminal trials when after I had finished my closing argument, a visiting and elderly senior judge called me to the bench afterwards and said that “I was the most articulate colored fellow he had ever heard.” The judge then asked where I had attended law school and when I said the University of Florida, he shot back “I should have known—Go Gators!” Now I did not take offense to the “colored” comment because the judge was in his late 70′s and during his life, colored had been the official designation (thus the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). But I must admit that I wondered how he had lived almost eight decades and had never encountered any other “articulate colored fellows” particularly when I knew thousands of the same?
Digressing, while Obama does not often get the credit for being a policy wonk like Bill Clinton, I have read numerous accounts that he has the same Clintonesque ability to read volumes of information and to analyze it in short order. And I have no doubt that Obama’s natural intelligence, coupled with advisers who I am sure are preparing him to give short, quick comments and responses, that he will be more than up to the challenge that a debate-tested Romney will pose.
NFL REPLACEMENT REFS
I fell asleep early on Monday night and missed the end of the Seattle-Green Bay football game, but suffice it to say that Seattle did not score a touchdown. Period. The NFL and the regular refs need to come to an agreement really soon as the lack of clarity and professionalism on display on that final call is disturbing. Even more disturbing was the NFL’s shoulder shrug in the wake of the brewing controversy. The teams—and fans—deserve better.
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