by Mark Silva
Our friends and colleagues traveling with President Barack Obama this week have an interesting take on "America's first tourist'' - all eyes as he entered the Great Pyramid, all ears as he joked about how much an image inside a vault looked like him.
Ed Chen and Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg News, in writing about the president's odyssey from Saudia Arabia to Egypt and from Buchenwald and Dresden to Paris and Normandy, paint a picture of an American tourist-in-chief wearing white slacks, Navy blue polo shirt and walking shoes as he gazes at the Great Pyramid in Giza and walking down a long slope toward the Great Sphinx - "Pretty neat, huh?''
Were it not for the entourage attached to the president's visit, Obama said, "I'd get on a camel.''
As Obama concludes his fourth trip abroad as president - traveling around Europe and Turkey a while back, going to Mexico and to Canada and now Cairo for his address to the Muslim world - he has quickly amassed a portfolio of sightseeing - serving as a contrast to his predecessor, who tended to be all-business on most of these trips (though we did get to see Bethlehem with President George W. Bush on one of our journeys to Israel with him.)
"Barack Obama is both America's first tourist and an universal ambassador," Allan Lichtman, a political history professor at American University in Washington, tells Bloomberg. He's "a persuader who is attempting to restore a foreign policy of diplomacy, positive example, and the speaking of the truth."
' "Obama, a self-described "student of history," was particularly enthusiastic about visiting the pyramids,'' they write. "While inside a small underground tomb at Giza, he pointed to a figure on a wall covered with hieroglyphics and said:
"Hey that looks like me. Look at those ears!"
"By paying homage to his host nation's cultural shrines and institutions - such as Obama's visit... to the Sultan Hassan mosque in Cairo, one of the largest in the Muslim world, or the refurbished Church of Our Lady in Dresden, Germany, yesterday - the president shows he is attuned to others' national sensibilities,'' Chen and Goldman write.
"Obama's excursions reinforce a key message: the importance of acknowledging and respecting cultural diversity and local history," says Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, tells them.
Comments
For Swamp readers who may be new, Swamp writer Mark Silva often quotes Dem/Left political activists in praise of Obama, while hiding the partisan leanings of those he quotes.
In the above article, the Alan Lichtman quoted as fawning over Obama is much more than a university professor. He's a Dem/Left politico who ran for the Dem Party's senate nomination in MD in 2006. Lichtman was so leftist that he lost overwhelmingly.
The other "nonpartisan expert' quoted, Charles Kupchan, was an official in Bill Clinton's administration.
Two people quoted. Both Dem Party operatives whose affiliation is not mentioned in the article.
Posted by: Bruce | June 6, 2009 9:09 PM
For Swamp readers who may be new, Swamp long time contributor, and resident troll under the bridge, Bruce, spends more time uncovering Mark Silva's evil plot to destroy the world one hidden left partisan leaning at a time, then reading the actually articles. If our Resident Troll-In-Chief did actually read anything in the Swamp, he might remember that a year ago, next month, The Swamp covered a book that captured Bambi's rise in politics through photographs, including trips to seven countries and places such as Mandela's cell or the Red Square. Wildly, to the most valued member of The Swamp community, the political ties of the fellows quoted above,well, make Obama's paying homage to his host nation's cultural shrines and institutions, and subsequent consequence of underlining the importance of acknowledging and respecting cultural diversity and local history, new, alien, and rooted in political bias. Thanks to Bruce, if you didn't know the only two people quoted here were Democrat operatives with political aspirations, one failure and one who worked along side a sexual harassers administration, you might have been greatly mislead as to the true message.
Posted by: Swamp Tree | June 7, 2009 1:20 AM
And how much money did this cost the taxpayers?
And how much of a carbon footprint was left with Obama's jet and Michelle's jet?
And how many "other" people populated BOTH planes?
HOW MUCH DID THIS COST THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER?
What a waste of taxpayer money.
And all Michelle did was shake hands and that was the reason she traveled in her own taxpayer jet.
List the names of ALL those one the trip/s?
Posted by: Lon | June 7, 2009 8:05 AM
Swamp Tree Troll, at least Bruce's posts are coherent and show a grasp of grammar and syntax. We can't say that of yours.
Posted by: The Swamp Has Become Troll Haven | June 7, 2009 8:54 AM
I will raise you one better. At the most, that is all they offer, aside from redundancy. Koodos. Break out the champagne.
Posted by: Boogieman | June 7, 2009 12:47 PM
And how much money did this cost the taxpayers?
And how much of a carbon footprint was left with Obama's jet and Michelle's jet?
And how many "other" people populated BOTH planes?
HOW MUCH DID THIS COST THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER?
What a waste of taxpayer money.
And all Michelle did was shake hands and that was the reason she traveled in her own taxpayer jet.
List the names of ALL those one the trip/s?
Posted by: Lon | June 7, 2009 8:05 AM
Excellent comment.
But with Obama propaganda machine going full blast and he considering him self a Living God we will probably never know.
Posted by: Inky | June 7, 2009 3:13 PM
As opposed to...? Let he among you who is not redundant cast the first stone. Trolls, all.
Posted by: Trolls Calling Trolls, Trolls | June 7, 2009 5:10 PM
Evidence of way too many stupid people in this country
"HOW MUCH DID THIS COST THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER?"
Anything that is NON=STATE BUSINESS is paid for by President Obama PERSONALLY.
Like any other business traveler who goes away for a trip, you can bring your wife or family along, as long as you pay for all the personal expenses.
This is normal procedure. And the only additional cost is the security - which they have NO CHOICE about.
People will find anything to whine and complain about. This is why we have so many problems - people are too stupid to think about the real problems, and instead of focus on idiotic points that waste everyone's time, and is non value added!
Posted by: Susan | June 7, 2009 5:44 PM
As opposed to everyone else.
Trolls are pagan.
Posted by: Father Troll | June 7, 2009 6:58 PM