House of Eratosthenes

Geez…we elected this guy President who’s really fun to watch and sounds kinda like Walter Cronkite, even though He doesn’t seem to know a damn thing about what He’s doing and we’re going to have to pay for His programs plus all the interest on the resulting debt for generations and generations…that doesn’t do the trick? What on earth is it gonna take?

According to Obama and liberals across America, electing Obama would undo all the damage to our reputation that Bush supposedly did. Only, in reality, the United States is less respected under Obama than it was under Bush. Shockah!

A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds.

The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin — 51 percent to 41 percent — Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency.

“This is surprising, given the global acclaim and Nobel peace prize that flowed to the new president after he took office,” said pollsters for the liberal-leaning organizations.

Gee, you might even think that he didn’t deserve the acclaim and the awards.

Maybe the fact that Obama has yet to forge one strong relationship with a major world leader has helped further destroy our credibility around the world. Now, granted, this is a poll of Americans, not foreigners. So I guess we technically can’t put too much stock into this. But Americans aren’t feeling more secure in our place in the world, and we’re the ones who are supposed to be benefiting from all the hopey-changey-ness anyways, right?

The tee shirt I wore on Saturday has Obama’s face right on the chest, with the words “WELCOME BACK, CARTER” emblazoned underneath. Apparel like this is getting more and more popular, by the day. This time it was another shopper three places behind me in line, yelling out “I love it!”

This world communicates in the language of horse heads in beds. Not primarily, perhaps. Here and there, civility, restraint and good manners may and will get you what you want and need.

But very few have any genuine respect for the submissive. And when you don’t respect somebody, you act in his interest only when it is costless for you to do so. That other language involving decapitated equine creatures does have its place.

So this problem will get worse before it gets better.

Did you ever see that TV show, “Welcome Back Kotter“? I cannot look at the phrase “Welcome Back Carter” without thinking about the theme song from that TV show.

And…the TV show was during his presidency. How strange.
- pdwalker | 03/09/2010 @ 08:10
Yes, it’s a play on words.

What I find even stranger, is that an alphabet-soup network premiered a mediocre run-of-the-mill sitcom that wasn’t even that popular (although it was Travolta’s launch vehicle), and it ended up being a bumper sticker slogan well-known even to people who didn’t watch the show. That’s the way it is with three channels: Each one comes out with its fall line-up, and everyone talks about it even if they’re not interested, because the title is an instant catchphrase..

Fast-forward to today, and curmudgeons like me don’t know anything about “Heroes” or “Deadwood” or “Boston Legal” or “Dexter” until these things are in their third or fourth seasons. Now, how do you explain such things to the Generation-Y folks? They have no way of really knowing how revolutionary it was to have a “delete” button on — anything. How teevee has changed, well that would go on a wholly different list.
- mkfreeberg | 03/09/2010 @ 08:29
I have the “Old School Conservative” shirt with Reagan’s face on it, and the “No Che” shirt.
- philmon | 03/09/2010 @ 10:16
I find it interesting that the world has since stopped the OB lovin… far from the “Messiah” title they gave him. In fact, its pretty darn quiet on that front!
- KC | 03/09/2010 @ 16:52
When you sacrifice all else in life just to be popular, you lose that as well.
- mkfreeberg | 03/09/2010 @ 17:31
I think what aggravates me, is the very premise that “respect” by other nations (at least the kind Obama wants, more accurately called “love”) is important in the first place…

– As if that kind of respect had any bearing whatsoever on the lives of everyday Americans.

– As if our government, as ruling regime in a sovereign country, were in any shape matter or form, accountable to citizens of other countries…rather than our own – who vote its leaders into power and pay their salaries via taxation.

– As if there were any accurate method of actually gauging what the “rest of the world” thinks of us – what would you do, send survey takers to walk around on the streets of Bombay, Shanghai, Moscow, and Buenos Aires? (Rather than just relying on a handful of elitists living in a handful of European countries?)

– As if the ordinary people of other countries, most of whom have never visited the United States at all (much less had a meaningful sampling of its incredible diversity of politics, opinion, food, climate, terrain, and lifestyle)…had any credibility to speak of when it comes to matters of American foreign policy or relations, or any idea whatsoever what life is really like for our citizens.

– As if there were really some kind of international model that we would look toward – some kind of example of what actual benevolent sincere concern for world opinion looks like – rather than a gaggle of 128-odd self-interested parties who worry even less about the subject than we do. (Is Norway, China, Paraguay, India, or Egypt sitting around wringing its hands?)

– As if even ONE of them could hold a candle to what our civilization has done for the rest of humanity, in terms of setting a good example, plus actual sacrifices of blood and treasure – both spilled in incomprehensible quantities – for the benefit of their freedom, with little or nothing expected in return. (Not to mention the way we always step up to the plate during unprovoked wars of aggression, natural disasters, etc).

– As if ANY of them had the SLIGHTEST teeny tiny bit of business lecturing US on any topic under the sun.

The kind of respect from other nations – the kind I value – has more to do with fear than with love. I want our enemies saying, “America is too strong. Do not provoke them or destruction will follow”, I want our friends saying, “Agree or disagree, they don’t back down, they don’t waver, and they’re always shoulder to shoulder with us” and all those in the middle saying, “That’s what we aspire to. How can we learn from America?”

I have always viewed this nation with the same eyes Ronald Reagan did – a shining city on a hill, a beacon of liberty. A leader among nations.

If other countries cannot understand and appreciate the American experience on its own merits, that’s their problem, not ours.
- cylarz | 03/09/2010 @ 23:42

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America Less Respected??Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

America Less Respected??
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010