You have to hand it to the current administration… they keep coming up with ways to embarrass America and diminish its standing on the world stage.
In the past week: the President’s kowtowing to dictators and terrorism-supporting states has allowed the United States’ record on human rights to be lambasted at the United Nations, TOTUS’s massive ego misinterpreted a gesture of capitalist goodwill as personal praise, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs got into a physical altercation because only 5 American reporters would be allowed into a photoshoot (instead of 8), and FLOTUS Michelle Obama foisted a handshake upon a hardline Muslim who believes his religion prohibits him from making physical contact with a female outside of his family.
Woo hah!
Conservative pundits have termed the President’s economic theory “Obamunism,” a vision of communism/socialism in the United States. His arguments for immigration reform have been called “shamnesty. ” And recently, we’re increasingly being show signs of “Obamateurism,” a term used to describe the absolute amateurism being exhibited by the left, and Obama’s White House specifically.
Obamateurism is sharply on the rise in the past week, as the above-mentioned four incidents attest. However, it is certainly not a new phenomenon: The not-yet-ready-for-primetime President has been acting decidedly unpresidential since the day he took office.
In July, 2009: Obama infamously said that Cambridge Police “acted stupidly” in their detention of Henry Gates, Jr. , then held a “beer summit” and hammed it up for the cameras while urging Americans to learn from this “teachable moment.” To this day, every time I hear someone use the phrase “teachable moment,” I want to smack them in the head with the 2,800 page healthcare bill.
Obama has slandered and shamed the Special Olympics, Nancy Reagan, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, Las Vegas, female reporters, the Bible, conservative Pennsylvanians, the American capitalist system, the Tea Party, and Navy Corpsmen everywhere.
In one of his most laughable arguments, he compared himself to other “great communicators” while, in the same breath, blaming the unpopularity of his healthcare policy on the fact that he hadn’t effectively communicated his message to America (despite having given 50+ speeches on the so-called benefits of ObamaCare).
That brings us to the events of the past week.
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council established a “review” system in 2006, under which member nations would self-report perceived violations. George W. Bush refused to subject the United States to the review process; he knew that it would merely serve to offer up the opportunity for nutjobs like Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, and Hugo Chavez to criticize the U.S. in a very public forum.
Obama, of course, took off on his “Apology Tour, 2009″ shortly after taking office, and agreed to self-report.
Well, Ahmadinejad, Castro, and Chavez are now the least of the embarrassments coming out of this deal. Russia now demands that the United States “fully investigate” allegations that torture occurred at interrogation camps. Ireland and France expect Guantanamo Bay to be closed immediately. Switzerland, Belgium, and the U.K. want the death penalty abolished. Antonio Ginatta, U.S. advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, criticized what was offered up by the U.S., saying, “U.S. officials were often reduced to restating current practices that grossly violate human rights, like the death penalty, poor prison conditions and sentencing youth offenders to life without parole.”
Meanwhile, while tin-pot dictators and allies alike criticize the freest country in the world, the Administration is busy sticking its foot in its mouth (among other things) in Southeast Asia during what is quickly turning into the “Amateur Hour Tour, 2010.” (Any chance we’ll get the “I Finally Get It Tour, 2011″? No? Didn’t think so.)
First, Obama made himself look like an ass on Saturday at a meeting in Mumbia.
From Hot Air:
“Foreign trips are always breeding grounds for Obamateurisms, and our President got off to a good start this weekend. Jake Tapper calls this “an odd little moment” from Barack Obama’s meeting with CEOs in Mumbai, India on Saturday, but it’s a revealing one, although not for the reason Jake thinks. The founder of Spice Jet wanted to draw attention to the shared Kenyan heritage between himself and Obama to make a point, but it wasn’t the point that the President assumed:
MR. KANSAGRA: Thank you. Welcome, Mr. President, to India. As a fellow Kenyan, I’m very proud to see that you have made –
THE PRESIDENT: Made something of myself. (Laughter.)
MR. KANSAGRA: — India as the focus of your drive for exports out of the U.S.
Perhaps he should have waited to find out exactly what Mr. Kansagra meant to say. Ironically, it was to compliment the President on his focus on India. Sorry, Mr. President. Not everything is all about you.”
Then, on Monday, reports began to surface that Robert Gibbs, unhappy with the fact the only five of the so-called “White House 8″ (the eight reporters accompanying Obama on his 11-day trip) would be allowed into a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Singh, literally used his foot to prevent the Indian security forces from closing the door on him. He then loudly and repeatedly asked if the Indian security team was “going to break [his] foot” and threatened to yank Obama from the meeting if the remaining three reporters were allowed inside.
Further American humiliation ensued when it was reported that the so-called meeting was nothing more than a photo op. Our Press Secretary got into a physical altercation to make sure that three more reporters could get in on the pictures. Yikes.
And today, controversy is swirling around Michelle Obama, who, despite her husband’s love affair with Islam, still doesn’t understand many things about the religion. She’s shown in widely-available video walking behind her husband, shaking the hands of male Muslims. While most Muslims in Indonesia are described as “moderates,” one proudly conservative Muslim official says he “unwillingly” shook her hand, as he believes in a strict interpretation of the Qu’ran that prohibits men from touching females were are not family members. Regardless, the fact that the wife of the most powerful man in the world would be so naive as to extend her hand to any Muslim man – especially in such close proximity to the President, who might perceive a refusal to shake hands as an insult – is especially embarrassing.
The gaffe machine is chugging away, and Obamateurism is leading the way.
