The American Revolution has been in vain if the president makes a doormat of himself and invites leaders of sovereign nations to wipe their feet on the United States.
Bam, the sham leader of the Free World, has sunk to new lows even for an apologist. When he’s not sweetening our nemeses with saccharine words, he’s exalting them with misplaced bows of public reverence and, in the case of his recent brush with Emperor Akihito of Japan, intensifying the ardor by polishing the parquet with his tonsils.
That coddling was clumsy because not too long ago we defeated the Land of the Rising Sun in a world war under the watch of Akihito’s father, Showa Emperor (Hirohito), who sanctioned the murder and torture of millions of civilians and then absolved himself in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, continuing his rule for another four decades.
Barack Obama’s “new spirit of patriotism” has broken with protocols which have served this nation well for much of its existence, plus raised the bar for presidential hypocrisy and compromised America’s irreproachable standing on the world stage.
The road to political implosion is short, especially when pock-marked by passivity and a foggy foreign policy. Ten months into his first term, President Obama has donated himself to suspect international communities as a whipping boy, becoming more infatuated with humoring our antagonists than with bolstering our allies.
His goals have been apparent from the get-go: His foolish January 27 address on Arab television misinformed the Muslim world that “all too often the United States starts by dictating.” That first point of duty, which emboldened jihadists and dismissed America’s domestic priorities, was followed by another bungle: His gracious bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, whose two-faced despotcracy is condemned by the Human Rights Watch as being “a veritable wasteland when it comes to respect for the fundamental human rights of its 22 million residents, including some six to seven million foreign workers and their families.”
If the cosseting was a simple demonstration of respect towards a world leader, then why the flippancy towards Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II? That gentle, aging monarch of America’s motherland, and the regnant of a Commonwealth of 16 independent sovereign states, received no bow during their visit together, but an impudent back-pat and an iPod as a crude gift.
The Gray Lady is only adding to the pallor. In June 1994, when President Bill Clinton slightly tipped himself to the same Japanese emperor, the New York Times admonished him as an “obsequent president.” Yet, it has been lenient towards President Obama, whose genuflection it judged had “somehow dishonored America’s image.”
From the Middle East to Russia to Latin America and beyond, Barack Obama is riding the coat-tails of disreputable leaders, and saving his rebukes for our kindred nations.
His presidential portfolio will be up for review on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, which will come soon enough. A recession on the homefront and a sequence of flops overseas make the current Oval Office look ineffectual, unenlightened and waffling – not attractive ingredients for a second term.
Sabruzzo@cnbglocal.com