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Jewish World Review March 29, 2011 / 23 Adar II, 5771 Bringing hope and change to the rest of the world By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The oddest thing about President Barack Obama's South American trip is that he went on it at all. To leave for a foreign junket immediately after plunging his country into war isn't the sort of thing Americans expect their president to do.
"Here was the country entering yet another military operation, and there was the president in Brazil. The contrast was jarring -- as if he was quite literally distancing himself from the consequences of his own policy," wrote Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.
Some will say my description of the trip as a "junket" is harsh. But the facts support it.
Mr. Obama traveled with a huge entourage which included his wife, two daughters, and his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson.
First stop was Brazil, where BrazzilMag described the visit as "lots of ceremony, little else."
In Chile, the biggest news Associated Press correspondent Jim Kuhnhenn could find is that Chile's president, Sebastian Pinera, told Mr. Obama: "I think the first lady of the U.S. is very good looking."
Mr. Obama "came, saw, and said nothing," tweeted Jose Pinera, the president's brother.
Our president cut his visit to El Salvador short by a few hours to return to Washington to deal, belatedly, with the conflict in Libya. This forced cancellation of a planned visit to Mayan ruins.
Mr. Obama's visits "revived some of the glamour and international adulation he enjoyed during the 2008 presidential campaign," said the Webzine Politico. But "the White House has yet to announce any major economic or diplomatic progress," the Politico said.
"When it came to issues of particular concern to Brazilians or other Latin Americans, the president had little to offer," said the Washington Post. " Instead, he delivered warmed over restatements on his broad positions on immigration and trade, without mentioning any meaningful new measures."
The purpose of the trip was to promote goodwill, the White House says. One way to promote goodwill is to say things your hosts want to hear. Brazil hasn't suffered much in the global recession, because it has discovered large deposits of oil offshore.
"We want to help you with the technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely," Mr. Obama told the Brazilians. "And when you're ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers."
Americans think it odd for their president to be promoting oil drilling in Brazil when he is doing so much to restrict it here at home.
"Mr. Obama's enthusiasm for punching holes in the ocean floor off Brazil is hard to reconcile with his decision, announced Dec. 1, to keep the waters off the East and West coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico off limits to exploration indefinitely," said the Washington Post.
"It seems somewhat hypocritical to a country that desperately needs jobs...that we're encouraging other countries to create the jobs we need," said Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski.
Oil drilling is restricted here allegedly out of environmental concerns. But this too is hypocritical, the editors of the Washington Post said.
"Forget the implications for U.S. dependency on foreign sources," the Post said. "What does this posture say about American regard for the natural environment outside U.S. territory?"
Mr. Obama told the newspaper El Mercurio he wanted to visit Chile specifically because its "successful transition to democracy and its impressive economic growth is a model for the region and the world."
Chile's economic growth -- about 6 percent a year for the last 30 years -- is impressive. The boom began after the government of Augusto Pinochet -- following the recommendations of freemarket economists trained at the University of Chicago -- slashed government spending, regulations, subsidies and bureaucracies.
Chileans were permitted to opt out of the bankrupt government Social Security system for personal retirement accounts. (About 97 percent of Chileans have switched, because the private accounts have outperformed the state system by a factor of 10.)
And Chile signed more free trade agreements than any other nation.
Mr. Obama opposes here at home the reforms he praised in Chile.
"One thing that should come out of the trip to Latin America is for Obama to take his own advice on Chile and look closer at its economic lessons," said Investors' Business Daily.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2009, Jack Kelly |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
