Jim Hoft:
As The Gateway Pundit (and everyone else) reported President Barack Obama snubbed the Je Suis Charlie march held in Paris on Sunday that was attended by dozens of world leaders.
The US was represented by the ambassador.Reporters took to Twitter to voice their sharp criticisms or questions of judgment regarding the failure of Obama to attend or at least send a high level representative to the march.
First the Obama spin as reported by Evan McMorris-Santoro of Buzzfeed:
“Asked about online criticism about lack of WH attendance at Paris rally today, admin official noted to me US Amb to France was there…(1/2)”
“…and also noted Holder/Mayorkas appearance at ministerial mtgs. Admin in touch with French on min-to-min basis, admin official said. (2/2)”
sr. admin official on the “who from US is in Paris?” questionpic.twitter.com/of418Ari25
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) January 11, 2015
Then the opinion of reporters:
Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic: “It would have been nice to see the country whose birth was midwifed by France send its leader to stand with France today.”
It would have been nice to see the country whose birth was midwifed by France send its leader to stand with France today.
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) January 11, 2015
Fareed Zakaria, CNN: “Why no U.S. leader at Paris rally? Isn’t this why God invented vice presidents?”
Why no U.S. leader at Paris rally? Isn’t this why God invented vice presidents?
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) January 11, 2015
Greta Van Susteren, Fox News: “@ron_fournier @AmPowerBlog you and I usually agree but not on this:I wanted my Pres there representing me”
@ron_fournier @AmPowerBlog you and I usually agree but not on this:I wanted my Pres there representing me
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) January 11, 2015
And: “the next time we want French help,they will remember if we mourned with them, stood with them @ron_fournier”
the next time we want French help,they will remember if we mourned with them, stood with them @ron_fournier
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) January 11, 2015
Jack Moore, International Business Times, UK: “French President Jacque Chirac was one of first foreign leaders to visit White House after 9/11. Why was Barack Obama absent at #ParisMarch?”
French President Jacque Chirac was one of first foreign leaders to visit White House after 9/11. Why was Barack Obama absent at #ParisMarch?
— Jack Moore (@JFXM) January 11, 2015
Simon Schama, BBC Presenter: “Actually, on US (non)representation in Paris: insulting abysmal complacent indifference to meaning of the day. Should be huge row.”
What do critics not understand about the current security situation in France?
Terror sleeper cells ‘activated’ in France
It’s no time and place for the President of the United States to be joining a street march. Does anyone not grasp why?
@Greg:
But Netanyahu had the cajones to go. I guess you think the Islamist terrorists never think about assassinating him?
You continue to be a moron.
The security of any President of the United States only has anything to do with “cajones” in your childish cartoon version of reality. Outside of that, most intelligent adults grasp the fact that you don’t allow a President of the United States to join a public street march in a foreign urban environment where terrorists are known to be looking for high profile targets of opportunity. Doing so would be an obvious and avoidable risk. Ignoring that danger would be moronic.
By the way, President Hollande asked Netanyaho not to attend the Paris march. Netanyaho showed up anyway. He was apparently more interested about making his own point that in Hollande’s concerns.
@Greg:
Considering that we have not heard of anyone entering the parameter of the French Presidential residence but that has happened numerous times at the White House, even making it to the interior of the White House, Obama might be safer in France. Obama could have sent John Kerry. After all, isn’t Kerry a French poodle?
@retire05, #4:
You mean, like this?
(There’s a remote possibility that we might not be looking at the best of all possible French-to-English translations…)
@Greg:
Mitt Romney is a private citizen, you dimwit. Obama, Kerry and that SOB, Holder, are not. So Holder goes to Paris and then doesn’t participate in the march with dozens of other world leaders. He claims he was in meetings? With who? Everyone of importance was at the march.
God, man, grow up and stop being so gullible.
@retire05: greggie pouts and runs out to his ethanol powered big wheel for a spin to clear his head
Ah, really. Who did the republicans send?
@Greg:
It was not a party duty, it was an Administration duty, you miserable excuser.
@Greg: I love that video of Romney.–talk about a French Poodle.
@retire05, #9:
There’s nothing to excuse. I’m not aware that it’s a duty of the President of the United States or any other high-ranking U.S. government officials to unnecessarily put themselves at risk by joining in an overseas public demonstration. As a matter of fact, I would think it would be their responsibility not to.
Anyone thinking there was no risk of such an attack hasn’t been paying very close attention.
@Rich Wheeler, #10:
I find the French hair and suit amusing. It is commendable to have command of a second language, however. He definitely speaks French better than I speak Spanish.
I suppose the captions are intended as humor. It was just too hard for someone to resist.
Remember when Clint Eastwood depicted Obama as an empty chair?
There’s an empty spot in one of these marches where Obama could have been for America.
The NT Daily News is a liberal NY newspaper.
It called Obama out Obama saying, ”you let the world down.” http://static1.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2073798.1421047795!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/index_635_390/390-rally2-0112.jpg
In that article it pointed out that Obama’s ”schedule” was completely open that day, but that he neither attended the Paris nor the Washington DC marches. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/eric-holder-u-s-dignitaries-no-shows-paris-unity-rally-article-1.2073821
Some footage (see last photo here) of the event nearly captures just how massive it was.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/13-stunning-photos-from-paris-massive-anti-terror-rally/article/2558499
@Greg:
So our government could not spare one person to take place in the march? Other than the ambassador which would be a given, not one could go to show solidarity?
I think its time for your to put on some more chapstick.
I watched the false outrage being rolled out on FOX News yesterday evening. If high-ranking U.S. officials had been present, they would have worked an entirely different anti-administration angle.
Oh, look, we’re outraged about (fill in the blank). You too should be outraged about (fill in the blank.) The Outraged Observer of selected news events is a FOX News specialty.
Sorry. I’ll decide what I think for myself. I don’t need right wing propagandists to do my thinking for me.
@Greg: I laugh at Fox on a regular basis. They oughta have Rush on to turn it totally comedic.
I’m kind of worried about how Rush might look, after being subjected to FOX News’s makeup standards. It’s actually a little too disturbing to consider.
@Greg:
Yes because Obama watching football was a bigger priority than the optics of showing solidarity with our allies.
@Mully: Do you seriously think France, England or Germany is concerned about our “solidarity with our allies”
Fortunate the march wasn’t held during the World Cup finals.
@Greg:
Of course you only mention Fox but no mention how a major Obama boot licker, Andrea Mitchell, called the Paris absence a “stunning absence” and “ham-handed.”
Or that Josh Ernest (an oxymoron if there ever was one) doesn’t seem to know what the President was doing yesterday. Seems he wasn’t prepared to answer that question.
OK, you’re the White House press secretary and there are multiple complaints about Obama’s absence in Paris and you don’t bother to ask the President what he was doing yesterday? Really? We are supposed to believe that crap?
Sorry, Greggie, most folks do not reach your level of gullibility.
@Rich Wheeler:
Actually, yes. And only true progressive sycophant would even begin to try to excuse the absence of any high level Administration from a march that was world moving in its multi-nation solidarity against terrorism.
Red Team and George She’s baaaak Rested and breathing fire.
You must be getting desperate for new things to be outraged about. Are you equally outraged at the French government for requesting that Netanyaho not attend?
Obama should have gone, then you could have ranted about the President wanting to make it all about him.
@Rich Wheeler:
I never left. You’re were just too unobservant to notice. No surprise. Your political views are based on nonobservance.
@Greg:
Me. and the liberal media. Ain’t that a hoot?
Sure, it was a total show of the disrespect France shows to others. But then, when your Islamic population equals 8%, I guess it is a safe move to try to keep your head attached to your neck.
Well, obviously he didn’t go because it wasn’t all about him. His manic narcissism on display.
Meanwhile, he blathers on about “internet safety” while CENTCOM is being hacked. How big a failure does Obama have to be before you acknowledge his failures?
Your views are unfair and imbalanced. You’re incapable of objectivity. You’re constantly angry and hostile. These things are your problems, not mine.
@Rich Wheeler: I laugh at Fox on a regular basis. They oughta have Rush on to turn it totally comedic. @Greg: I’m kind of worried about how Rush might look, after being subjected to FOX News’s makeup standards. It’s actually a little too disturbing to consider.
Actually you belie the fact that you don’t really watch much Fox News.
If you did you’d catch Rush on one show.
He only is a guest once a month or so, and he is interviewed from his own studio, not inside the Fox studios.
I agree about all the make-up.
O’Reilly looks far older (more his real age) in public.
And Shep looks bar-room weary without all his make-up.
Some of the make-up on the ladies is totally bogus, too.
@Greg:
So then, you think that the left wing media that agrees with me is also unfair, imbalanced and incapable of objectivity? Got it.
If it is not your problem, then you are not a citizen of the United States, so Obama’s absence, or the absence of any high ranking Administration official, would have no effect on you. What happened to that “collective” mindset you liberals are always blathering about?
@Nanny:
Are you surprised at their lack of knowledge? Both clowns only know how to parrot the DNC.
@Nanny, #27:
It’s not only the FOX News ladies. Brooke Baldwin’s face on CNN also seems to be painted on these days. I always thought one of the signs of a good makeup job was for a person to look like they were hardly wearing any. Apparently I haven’t kept up with changing styles and standards.
I’ve never seen Rush Limbaugh on CNN, other than video outtakes from his radio program.
@retire05, #29:
Do you really believe that constant insults make for better discussion? Or is it just your way of trying to shut down people who voice opinions you dislike?
@Greg: Erin and Meghan–don’t mess with perfection.
Pretty boy Sean couldn’t even compete with M.K.
O’Reilly–the face of an old Irish fighter– he deserves his #1 ranking.
Think Wolf does a great job
Shep and Anderson C. should get a room. Softball commentators.
Re 05 Insulting people is her shtick.
Considering her stated distain for the French, we’re lucky SHE didn’t show up.
@Greg:
Muslims were not in danger of being attacked.
@Greg: 15
very telling that you choose Fox for your news source.
@Redteam, #33:
Actually, the most prolific killers of innocent Muslims are other Muslims.
@Greg:Prolific: producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful: Actually, the most prolific killers of innocent Muslims are other Muslims. So substituting the definition of prolific for the word, we have ”
Actually, the most producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful killers of innocent Muslims are other Muslims.
Get a better dictionary, and try to become more attentive to the presence of irony.
@Greg: dictionary dot com. What other would you suggest?
I’ll repost if you like but I don’t think the word ‘irony’ was there. But let’s re-evaluate:
where does Obama fit? Is he “prolific killers’ or ‘innocent Muslims’ or ‘other Muslims’? Maybe that’s the irony of which you speak.
If you’re using dictionary dot com, try definition #2:
Killers can be prolific. That was how the word was being used. Such usage is a touch ironic, because of definition #1.
I won’t even bother arguing with the goofy notion that Obama is a Muslim.
@Greg:
yeah, that’s nothing I would argue either, His father was a muslim and his mother thought Barry was when she enrolled him in elementary school in Indonesia. So why would anyone argue it?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/11/05/was-obama-once-an-indonesian-citizen-heres-what-we-found-when-we-went-there-looking/
Of course, as so many documents about Barry are, it could be a forgery.
@Redteam: Greg and RT. As I’ve said–if this guy is a Muslim, he’s the worst one in the history of The Koran. The only time he bows towards Mecca is when he’s picking up a golf ball. The Imans gotta be disgusted with him and his longtime association with Rev. Wright”s anti-Islamist Christian church.
I believe he’s an atheist like his mother.
He’s too self absorbed to spend time worshiping any deity or following the teachings of any Prophet.
@Rich Wheeler:
If? You know that it’s ‘once Muslim always Muslim’ they don’t let you out. Look his press secretary doesn’t even know where he was or what he was doing yesterday, he might have spent the day on his knees toward Mecca. (yes, perhaps even on the golf course while doing so)
it’s not your belief that matters, he thinks he’s a muslim.
you have a point.
@Greg: how about obama saying he will back muslims if ill winds blow. If you do not know by now this man is anti- American, and a progressive socialist bordering on communist muslim you really need to get out of your shoe box. This man has made it obvious his agenda, and that is to destroy this country. Ironic how it has been stated before the USA would be destroyed from within.
@Greg:
Alinsky tactics seems to work for the left. I just decided to fight fire with fire. Until you stop making excuses for the failure that is Obama, I will continue to point out your gullibility.
Yup. Obama likes his pork chops, barbecue, beer, and wine a bit too much to pass muster with any Imam. I think he’s probably a Rastafarian. He’ll probably come out if he visits Colorado.
@Greg:
gee, you left out ‘guys’, in that list. You think Muslims don’t eat pork, or drink alcohol? Geez, I’ve been in dozens of bars in muslim countries and I’ve seen many muslim men and women all drinking booze. Don’t know if they ate pork or not, but hey, if it’s a ‘forbidden fruit’ I’m sure they’ve tried it.
RW, Oregon should have worn their Green and Gold outfits.
That game is a renewal of the lesson on ‘Why not to bet on College Football Games’, although I never have, this is just a good re-enforcement.
@Redteam: I got two words–Urban Meyer–the best in the game.
Oregon losing their top receiver on failed drug test also hurt.
@Rich Wheeler: Meyer can certainly make that claim. No excuses, OS just whipped them from beginning to end. wonder what score would have been if OS hadn’t made 4 turnovers. It was certainly their night.