Some of my friends criticize me because they believe I am too hard on President Obama. They say they can’t believe that there is not one of his policies which I support wholeheartedly. Even a broken clock is right two times a day, they say; isn’t there one policy to which you can urge “let’s help Obama on this one”? And I would reach down to the bottom of my soul and really try to come up with something, but I always failed … until today. I have finally found something we should all help Obama implement. He doesn’t like talking to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu all the time; all of America should be behind our President insuring that he doesn’t have to talk to Bibi every day.
During the G20 meetings, President Barack Obama and French President Sarkozy got caught talking in front of a hot mic.
The conversation began with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for not having warned him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO despite Washington’s strong objection to the move. But then the two got personal:
“I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama. The POTUS replied: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”
Nothing leads to good political pundit material like pair of catty politicians speaking candidly an without realization that they’re in front of an open mic. In true Los Angeles Times fashion, the “journalists” in the room agreed not to report the comments (remember during the 2008 campaign the Los Angeles Times withheld a potentially damaging video tape of Barack Obama toasting his friend and former PLO press spokesman Rashid Khalidi). Then all of the reporters in the room signed a pledge to withhold the damaging information (although there is no truth to the rumor that Abe Foxman of the ADL insisted on the written pledge).
What happened next is what usually happens in cases like this.
The people who were in the room kept to the pledge and didn’t report it, but they told just about everyone they knew. In less than a week, it was the talk of the town. The news was so widespread that one of the signatories, French website Arret sur Images, decided everybody knew about it anyway, so they let the cattiness out of the bag and reported the conversation. Their report was backed up by a Reuters “journalist” who was also there.
There is no surprise that the story was kept under wraps. In the US press, everything a politician says is “on the record” except when they are asked not to write about it. However, in Europe, reporters generally keep things “off the record” unless they are told the material was for public sharing.
The President’s comments explained much about previous incidents with Netanyahu. He doesn’t like dealing with the guy. Then again, this President has a history of issues with people who do not submit to his wishes.
We now know what was behind that incident where the President left the PM and his party stewing in a White House conference room for a few hours while he went upstairs to have dinner with Michelle and the girls. Truth is, Michelle and the girls were in NYC at the time (he even made the Israeli party leave through the side entrance so the press couldn’t ask any questions).
From now on when Obama introduces his “Good Friend Benjamin Netanyahu” we will know he is really introducing “the guy I hate dealing with, Benjamin Netanyahu.”
I feel bad for the President, stuck dealing every day with a guy he doesn’t like . Dear Readers I promise to work every day from now until election day 2012 to make sure Barack Obama doesn’t have to deal with Bibi Netanyahu every day. Of course that means that we would have to elect someone else as President, but that is a very small price to pay for the happiness of our leader (and our economy).
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