Washington (CNN)The heads of Great Britain, Germany and Israel were there.
But President Barack Obama didn't attend a unity march in Paris on Sunday, days after the deadly attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Nor did his secretary of state, John Kerry, who has deep ties to France.
Kerry was in India, attending an entrepreneurship summit with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- with whom the United States is hoping to develop much closer trade ties.
Instead, the United States was represented by U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley.
Of course his reasoning was altruistic…. The security arrangements for a visit by him or by the vice president would have been would have been too intrusive to the proceedings.
ReplyDeleteI understand that he is a lightning rod; he has worked hard to make himself one. I understand that no one wants to die just because they went to work, but he took the job as LEADER of the free world. The whole point of the demonstration was to tell those who would do people harm for their opinions that ‘we are not afraid of you’. While not as big a target, the UK Prime Minister was on the front row linking arms with the likes of Netanyahu for goodness sake. If there were two other political targets on the planet any more inviting I don’t know who they would be.
If course his defenders will say that he has certain security protocols that are out of his hands… BS… He runs the joint. He owns the director of Homeland Security and if he can tell his Sec of Justice to ignore certain laws passed by congress, he can certainly make his visit, if not to France, the demonstration in Washington DC, pretty damn unobtrusive… but he is afraid to attend a demonstration of people who are telling the world that they aren’t afraid… Martin Luther King knew what the risks were and his principles made him take that risk. As a result, his works became even more relevant by his assassination… Man Up Mr. President.
Yes, security reasons.
Delete40 other world leaders were there, guess their security wasn't important.
Is Obama a talented con man or a slick politician that does not waste his time trying to convince knowledgeable skeptics?
Is his job is to keep the true believers believing as he is not going to convince the others anyway?
Of course there is another possibility. Perhaps his sympathies don’t lie with the likes of Charlie Hebdo. Perhaps he doesn’t like satire. Maybe that is why a rodeo clown lost his job for just wearing a mask that looked like President Obama. Perhaps the 1st amendment is just another thorn in his side and not something he views as a right of anyone but a select few. Perhaps that is why his administration has gone after the press so vigorously. Perhaps he was busy instituting new security measures to monitor the American population even more rather than curtailing no knock warrants… or perhaps his sympathies really do lie with a people opposed to the freedom loving west… Or maybe the NFL playoffs were more important than telling terrorist to F***Off!
ReplyDeleteWhere was Obama? Exactly what we have been asking about Benghazi.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he was planning his next golf trip or holed up with his advisers formulating his upcoming rash of veto's.
Crate up the Statue of Liberty and send it back.
Hell if he would have went you would have bitched about the money he spent to get there. Vacationing in France is what you would have said. You people are ridiculous
ReplyDeleteYou People?.... Hell their isn't a news paper in the world that hasn't commented on the fact that he wasn't their. Why don't you get off your partisan horse once in a while and judge his actions on merit, right or wrong, instead of the fact that he isn't a Republican.
DeleteHa Marco Rubio in the Hill , Ted Cruz in the Hill, FOX NEWS, Lindsay Graham all commenting That Obama wasn't there, naw there is nothing partisan in that group at all.
DeleteNot all newspapers in the world are republican and their is only one president that screwed this up... who else are they going to say let down the American people?
DeleteWell, Kerry is going and has a meeting with France's President scheduled, but I still think Obama dropped the ball. He should publically offer his apology to France.
DeleteHow embarrassing.
Deletehttp://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-biden-absent-from-paris-solidarity-march-1421027516
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/12/politics/obama-kerry-paris/index.html
White House: 'We should have sent someone with a higher profile'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/barack-obama-missing-in-a_b_6458720.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905678/America-snubs-historic-Paris-rally-Holder-skipped-early-Kerry-India-Obama-Biden-just-stayed-home-leave-no-U-S-presence-anti-terror-march-joined-global-leaders.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-palestinian-leaders-to-show-gesture-of-solidarity-to-france-1420977133
Nobody let me down. hell you don't like the French anyway. They have been a thorn in our collective sides ever since Reagan had to go around France to bomb Qadaffi. They didn't come to NYC post 9/11 did they? They fought us on the right to go after Al Qaeda didn't they? I'm not let down they kinda got what they were asking for by always being on the side of the terrorists.
ReplyDeleteThe demonstrations in France and in fact in Washington DC were not at all about France or our solidarity with the French people. No one was walking around with a sign that said anything about France ... it was, from beginning to end, about the right of free speech. Of course as I said above, the left have a real hard time with this one because at the end of the day, they want to be the ones who define and control what is considered free speech. I suppose to a supporter of leftist policies which create hate laws and bludgeon discussion with political correctness, the symbolism of the President, of the one country that has enshrined free speech in its constitution, not attending a rally to support free speech is to be applauded and justified… even glorified. Of course he didn’t let you down Rick.
DeleteNow that the left has watered down the first two inform ric that the North Carolina National Guard will be quartering a platoon in his home. Not to worry, it will only be for a short time, just until things get back under control. Just until things get back to normal.
DeleteActually William they are quartered in a brand spanking new barracks less then 10 miles away. Growing, prosperous, not to mention democratically run communities get those kind of things done for our men and women who protect us. I feel safe and they would be welcome in my home anytime.
Deleteto the Scott; http://images.jagran.com/France_Rally_BIG.jpg
looks decidedly French to me.
This would be decidedly American... or at least of group of those who believe in free speech
Deletehttp://i.huffpost.com/gen/2478160/thumbs/a-DC-MARCH-640x468.jpg
huh I didn't know that we owned the one and only franchise on free speech. The very fact that Charlie Hebdo existed in France and not the United States kinda screams that they are a little better at that then we are doesn't it? Reality check, freedom of speech exists all over Europe. In fact they are better at most personal liberties then we are. But continually they are bashed for the very stuff you believe in.
DeleteI really don’t know how to converse with you Rick when your purpose appears to be nothing but argumentative.
DeleteYou either waste people’s time with senseless ‘devil’s advocate’ arguments, are confused about where you stand, or do not understand the real motives and direction of the party you seem to favour. Your party along with Republicans bar 3 passed the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, more euphemistically known as HR 347 or the “First Amendment Rights Eradication Act”. Throughout discussions here I don’t believe you have raised the banner of the Bill of Rights and you appear to stand unapologetically with the party that drives hate laws and of course political correctness that stifles real discussion and resolution of social problems that ail a country.
You mistake the steadfast reverence for the ability to speak one’s mind with the many freedoms Europeans have lost over time. In the last decade the UK has lost the right to trial by jury and double jeopardy David Camron vowed that should the conservatives win again the would tear up the Human Bill of Rights championed by Winston Churchill and replace it with something he has yet to define. France has 10,000 military personnel on it streets. In Germany authors, editors, publishers, printers, wholesalers, retailers, importers and exporters, warehouses, and customers buying more than two copies of a certain medium with peaceful, yet dissenting views on history or politics can be prosecuted for producing, stocking, importing/exporting, distributing such dissident material.
Charlie Hebdo was, like all incidents of its type, a gift the big government rule that you support with your words day in and day out. We will have a raft of new ‘security laws’, internet censorship and expansion of the police state in the name of protecting the citizens… and you will cheer. Make no mistake about my position on this subject, I was up in arms the minute GW Bush uttered the words “Free Speech Zones”.. and that was, for the most part, to silence people like you.
“The very fact that Charlie Hebdo existed in France and not the United States kinda screams that they are a little better at that then we are doesn't it?”
With a distorted grin on my face, I ask… “You are asking me that question?” Again, I suggest that you start re-examining your many central government, politically correct, social engineering comments before you ask that of me. I was up in arms the minute Bush uttered the words, “Free Speech Zone”.. and that was, for the most part, to shut you guys up!