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New at Reason: Michael C. Moynihan on the Obama-Chavez Handshake
According to his critics on the right, the Obama-Chavez
handshake is a sign of desperation, a desire to be loved, a warm
gesture to a brutal autocrat. To his defenders on the left, the
mere willingness to talk to blustering fools like Chavez and Castro
is a "hard-headed formula for advances America's interests in the
world" and shows that, at long last, there is an adult in charge of
American foreign policy. Both ideas, writes Michael C. Moynihan,
are nonsense.
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jj|4.22.09 @ 7:14PM|#
I don't believe the handshake was sincere on Obama's part because he's left handed.
Paul|4.22.09 @ 7:29PM|#
Obama is being presidential. He has to govern.
Shit, that never gets old.
Joe Dangler|4.22.09 @ 7:44PM|#
According to his critics on the right, the Obama-Chavez handshake is a sign of desperation, a desire to be loved, a warm gesture to a brutal autocrat.
What, a handshake is a "he" now?
|4.22.09 @ 7:53PM|#
When one suffers from obessive compulsive chavezian polemics disorder ("OCCPD"), one's editing tends to suffer.
|4.22.09 @ 7:58PM|#
Why is it the U.S. President's job to affect change in Cuba?
|4.22.09 @ 8:03PM|#
Did Cathy Young steal Moynihan's password? ;-)
I'm just shocked. He's never been one to equivocate in the past.
Josh|4.22.09 @ 8:42PM|#
Dangler -- "his" can have an antecedent from a previous sentence.
sage|4.22.09 @ 9:03PM|#
Moynihan and Venezuela again? Someone kick the record player please.
Michelle|4.22.09 @ 9:11PM|#
Barack be savin' de fistbump fo'Ahmadinejad.
economist|4.22.09 @ 9:54PM|#
4 hours after a Moynihan post, and MNG still hasn't brought the Israeli-Palestinian rage? Damn. I'm starting to get worried.
MNG, you're all right, aren't you?
If I\'d Been in That Positon|4.22.09 @ 9:57PM|#
I hear Chavez gave Obama his signature Marxist tract. Now, obviously wouldn't do this, but if I had been in that situation, I would have given Chavez a copy of Atlas Shrugged.
You know, as an allegorical history of his regime.
Pepe|4.22.09 @ 10:26PM|#
"Pat Buchanan complained that Obama "virtually groveled" to the Latin American left, making it "the most shameful and pathetic performance by an American leader at a summit in my lifetime."
Well he was only about 8 when it happened but you would think Yalta would rank a little higher on his list.
engineer|4.22.09 @ 11:20PM|#
Good point, Pepe. Though in Roosevelt's defense, many of the concessions were predicated on Soviet assistance in a U.S. invasion of Japan. That said, no invasion...
Not saying it would have been worth it even if we had invaded Japan. Just pointing out that it wasn't quite as pointless as the current display.
Lester Hunt|4.22.09 @ 11:25PM|#
That article by the Venezuelan blogger is excellent. Follow the link in the word "shrugged" in Moynihan's article. Highly recommended.
JB|4.22.09 @ 11:31PM|#
It isn't about the handshake. It's about afterwards when Obama and Chavez went to the back room and Obama spent hours sucking Chavez's asshole.
Hugh Akston|4.22.09 @ 11:36PM|#
Why is it the U.S. President's job to affect change in Cuba?
Obama is the Chosen One. It was foretold that His glorious coming would be the salvation of us all. Hope and Change are His magnificent destiny.
The Presidency is just his current job.
engineer|4.23.09 @ 12:46AM|#
I think Venezuela's had all the democratically-mandated change it can stand.
|4.23.09 @ 4:10AM|#
"I would have given Chavez a copy of Atlas Shrugged."
"Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" would have been a better choice. And thinner.
BakedPenguin|4.23.09 @ 4:54AM|#
Why the lesser lights among the President's critics think this is a big deal is beyond me. What should Obama have done? Stuck his hands behind his back? Oooh, that would have shown Chavez.
Considering the truly craptacular policies Obama is implementing, wasting time and energy calling him out on this is idiotic. The critics should be focusing on the important stuff.
threeofclubs|4.23.09 @ 8:46AM|#
Does Pat Buchanan ever think that some of these "interventions" that he is so fond of might help explain some of the popularity of people like Chavez?
Cabeza De Vaca|4.23.09 @ 9:44AM|#
threeofclubs,
What interventions?
mark|4.23.09 @ 5:25PM|#
I would have given Chavez The Road to Serfdom.