Quotes of the day

“’That was a mistake,’ Palin says of the Obama bow. ‘It was symbolic of, perhaps, our country being led to believe that we are subservient to other countries.’ She says she would ‘like to see us head more in the direction of Ronald Reagan’s thinking — knowing that we are a very, very blessed nation and a superpower.’ She adds, ‘We can get there through a position of strength and not believing that we have to kowtow or bow to anybody.’ Asked if she would have bowed, she replies, ‘No, sir.’”

***
“My actual beef is that the crap Obama is doing is irrelevant. No one gives a flying f**k if you bow to them, or you say nice things about ‘working together to reach our collective goals,’ or this ridiculous conceit that just because of Obama’s ‘personal presence’ — a historic presidency, drenched in drama, topped with butter-baked crumbs of hope — is going to make a lick of difference. Nations pursue their own policy goals — period. You change the goals a nation might pursue by offering carrots and sticks, by buying them off or making it so costly to pursue a particular goal they refrain from doing so…

“So my point, then, is that what Obama is doing is perfectly trivial, and to get all outraged about it actually invests his empty and feckless symbolism with a power it doesn’t have. Obama’s bowing to a Saudi king does nothing to improve our relations with the Islamic world. And neither, frankly, does Cheney shaking his hand as an equal. Neither matters — and the problem here is that Obama is convinced these things not only matter, but are well-nigh determinative.

“This malignant narcissist thinks that nations will change their fundamental national goals based simply on the (purported) fact that Obama is charming, nice, and awesome…

“He is indulging in fantasy at the expense of reality, and therefore at the expense of US national interests.”

***
“In less than a month, President Obama will step onto a stage in Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

“If Mr. Obama hoped that his week-long four-country visit to Asia, his first as president, would yield concrete accomplishments that might silence critics skeptical that he deserves that prize, he might be disappointed.

“Though White House aides insist the president’s trip was mainly to reassert a US presence in Asian diplomacy, and that his itinerary set no expectations for major feats, the president has heard disappointing news in the past few days.”

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