
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 31, 2009
/ 6 Nisan 5769
If only America could be more like Europe
By
Wesley Pruden
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Barack Obama hasn't been president for three months yet, and already he's exercising the presidential prerogative of packing up his teleprompter, his charisma and the first lady, and getting out of Dodge. When the going gets tough, the tough are eager to be gone.
The president had a busy day Monday, "rebranding" the nation's largest automaker and firing its top executive. The bad news is that everything the government touches turns to mud. The stock markets collapsed worldwide on receipt of the news, wiping out the modest gains of last week. But the good news is that Government Motors can now include a mud pie with every Chevy sold (two mud pies with every Buick and three with a Caddy).
Rick Wagoner, the dumpee at GM, now knows what it feels like to get run over by a Hummer. Only a few weeks ago, he was flying to Washington in his private corporate jet with a begging bowl in his lap. "Supersize me," he said, confident that Congress would. It turns out that nobody in Washington was listening. Now poor Rick has only his rue and his rage and no begging bowl.
Mr. Obama, presiding over a government soon to be just as broke as GM or Chrysler, flies off to London in a corporate jet bigger, brighter and bolder than anything Mr. Wagoner and his former colleagues in Detroit can imagine. The Boeing 747 is equipped with enough electronic gadgetry and shielding to defeat an attacking squadron of the Luftwaffe and survive the effects of a nuclear blast, and the president won't be bored on the six-hour flight across the Atlantic.
The big Boeing even has a gym not quite as big as the gym at the Y, but big enough for the president to tone his pecs and Michelle to work on the upper arms that so many flabby ladies are swooning over. (The next version of Air Force One will have a ski slope and a nine-hole golf course.) When they descend from the plane at London's Stansted Airport, royals dispensing waves and nods to the happy singing natives, both the president and the first lady will be braced and buff, eager to unleash the magic diplomacy the president promised during the campaign.
He's taking an entourage of only 500 of his dearest and closest pals, including 200 Secret Service bodyguards of one sort or another; his armor-plated Cadillac limousine (he owns the company now), several helicopters, six doctors and a blood bank, ready to deal with anything from an ingrown toenail to a heart transplant. His bodyguards the London papers have tipped their readers to recognize them by their shirt-cuff radios, Ray-Ban sunglasses and 1950s haircuts are always nervous on presidential trips, and well they might be, venturing into London's roiling mass of faux "Englishmen." The politically correct version of what the bodyguards fear most is an assassination attempt by unreconstructed rednecks, but the real fear is an assassination attempt by Muslim redhots north London abounds with them who are angry and offended that Mr. Obama blew off his Islamic birthright to become an infidel tool of the Great Satan.
The elaborate show of pelf and privilege is meant to impress, though the London audience promises to be a little tougher than he once counted on. The president will need the presidential advantage. The modern White House takes its cue from the ancient Chinese sage as translated by Lin Yutang: "A man getting drunk at a farewell party should strike a musical tone, in order to strengthen his spirit and a drunk military man should order gallons and put out more flags in order to increase his splendor." A politician's ego, measured at 200 proof, is far more intoxicating than the bonded stuff.
The heads of the 20 states gathering in London are eager for argument. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading the assault on the British proposal for a global stimulus, which may cost $1 trillion. Or it may be $2 trillion. "I will not let anyone tell me that we must spend more money," she said. The Spanish finance minister scoffed that no one in the "eurozone" thinks there's room for a new stimulus plan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to "radically reform" capitalism.
If only America could be more like Europe. When Mr. Obama gets to France for a NATO summit, the "atmospherics" are likely to get even cooler if he says anything about the Europeans doing their part in the war on what we're not supposed to call terror. The longer he stays away, the better America will look to Barack and even Michelle.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Wesley Pruden Archives
© 2007 Wesley Pruden
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|