Obama’s Global Reach via Movie Theaters, Bikes Messengers, Text and Mobile Networks

Anyone ever visited, or at least seen, hardcore communist countries (or soon after communism, alledgedly, fell.) Murals of “dear leader” everywhere, student groups, youth brigades, singing workers, phamphlets, propaganda, censorship, state run tv/radio/news broadcasts, state run health care which throws dissidents into mental asluyms, etc. Well Obama has come in an age where it is even far easier for a megalomaniac to gain a total police state- or at least broadcast the message. Think “1984″ if you haven’t seen reality in other countries.
Hopefully, Obama won’t go so far but it is always dangerous to put so much power -and adoration- into one man’s hands….even if he has proclaimed himself to be “The One”.

Oh brother. When is he going to do some work and fix the economy.

jhw, I’m pretty sure Ed was referring to the attempt to feed the adulation of the masses overseas (and in America) through this odd “global reach” initiative. Congress is a whole different kettle of fish, since it is a power base of its own. But then, you knew that.

moderate:”jhw, I’m pretty sure Ed was referring to the attempt to feed the adulation of the masses overseas (and in America) through this odd “global reach” initiative. ”
Then I have to wonder why Ed fears all that power that comes from – what? Africans liking Obama? Americans liking their elected leader (I guess in a functional Democracy, that does terrify Republicans)? And he works up this dreaded fear even though Congress is clearly and effectively doing it’s job as a balancing power (far better than it did in the 9/11 skewed era).
As for odd “global reach” initiative, what makes it odd? It is no different than outreach done by every modern president. Is it odd merely because he’s being as successful as Reagan?
Ed: “Hopefully, Obama won’t go so far but it is always dangerous to put so much power -and adoration- into one man’s hands”

Obama is strengthening our national security and dramatically raising world opinion about us by connecting with the people of the world. As he has said many times, it isn’t enough to communicate with the higher ups in other countries, we need to connect with the people. Russia’s government, for example, is focused on it’s own power. The people in Russia were not given an opportunity to hear what Obama had to say to them. If we are to decrease nuclear stock piles in the world, address hunger, decrease pollution, increase clean energy, and many other things, then the people of the world have to get behind these things. Obama is reaching out to the world on behalf of America so that we can all live better and safer lives. Why would any American be afraid or suspicious of that? We need to stop being afraid of every new thing that comes along and understand that change can be a very good thing.

The modern equivalent of the Red Guards? You, too, will be forced to confess!

Jhw, you asked me to explain my statemetn about Obama’s worldwide publicity machine, writing, “As for odd “global reach” initiative, what makes it odd? It is no different than outreach done by every modern president. Is it odd merely because he’s being as successful as Reagan?”
Last things first– while I have seen people compare Obama to Reagan before (and sometimes I have seen the similarity and sometimes I have not), this one confuses me. I should preface my response by admitting I was not a huge Reagan fan. Good moderate that I am, I thought he was a pretty good president but could not at the time see why he inspired such great passion, either positive or negative. I was a much bigger fan of his VP, George HW Bush. I always told people I voted for GHWB four times (that is, GB was the deciding factor in my voting for the Reagan/Bush ticket both times).
But your comparison strikes me as apples and oranges. I do not recall Reagan as a beloved figure around the world. Western Europeans I knew tended to despise him as a cowboy and to express certainty that he would blow up the world. Yes, he was popular in Eastern Europe because of his role in fighting the Cold War. It was similar around the world, I suspect– he divided world opinion as he, at the time, divided american opinion.
Yes, in the US he was a master of PR. I’ll grant you that. So I assume you are saying Obama is also a PR dream– I’ll grant you that, too.
No, when I say odd, I am bemused by this ‘cult of personality’ push to publicize his every grand gesture. Are they similarly working to publicize other important news from America or, for example, Hillary Clinton’s speech from earlier today, which also lays out markers about the current administration’s views on how AMerica can and should interact with the wider world? Or are they simply making sure that every person possible gets to bask in the words of the president? Rather like putting his speeches on the IPOD with which he gifted the queen.
I know, they promised, according to Jake’s final paragraph, to continue to disperse information and encourage people worldwide to be “involved.” I’ll wait to see what sort of info they disperse and what sort of involvement they have in mind before I pass judgment on the idea. FOr the moment, I stand by my statement that it is odd, in a creepy sort of way.
Yes, every recent american president has been interested in outreach, but not every american president has felt that the outreach should focus on an individual, that is, the president. We are not just trying to spread the word about American aid or American values or American commitments, but to spread the words of the president talking about those things. PUblicizing the US and publicizing the President of the US are not the same thing.
I am a little under the weather tonight, so I know that was not expressed very clearly, but hopefully it makes a modicum of sense.

to jwh59 and others: never before (in recent memory) has power been so centralized into the Executive branch, Federal government, and personage of the President. I have lost count of how many “Czars” we have now. (Czars are not elected, not confirmed, and not answerable to Congress or the people.) Under Obama’s demented plans these “Czars” will have access to ALL our health data and information (incl prescription, sexual, drug use, alcohol use, mental health, dna, etc). Nice information to be used in politics or blackmail, you think? They run many of the car companies. At a whim they can decide which banks “are too big to fail” or “allowed to fail”. You can’t even refuse “assistance” if you are a private company or indeed even a State! They “make you an offer you can’t refuse”. Obama is obsessed with symbols and slogans- many of which are expropriated from others (Si Se Puede from the mainly Hispanic farm worker union and from the illegal alien protests, his Obama badge which mimics almost exactly the European Union’s “Protected Designation of Origin” symbol, etc.) And now funding for youth ballations of “volunteers” and his office controlling the census (and forcing you to give ALL kinds of information to his minions.) Scary stuff indeed!

jhw:And as much as Obama, Reagan shocked Europe as showing the American dream was a reality. They still speak in admiration of a guy who was a life guard, an actor, from a no-name background becoming a powerful American leader. That just didn’t happen in Europe.
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First of all, cult of personalities always have critics. Saying someone has critics does nothing to refute the idea of a cult of personality.
Moderate was spot-on (again).
As for the people you know in Europe who still speak of Reagan for showing the American dream is true– why Reagan? There were many US Presidents before him from modest or poor backgrounds:
Carter, Truman, Ford– Nixon was so poor his family couldn’t pay train fare to send him to Harvard, though he’d earned a spot there.
From what I remember of the Reagan years, American college students were putting Canadian flags on the backpacks as they went on summer studies in Europe.

Absolute power corrects absolutely.
Always has, always will.

The critics of Obama are plain pathetic. He’s not going to do everything perfectly, but he was dealt a horrible hand, and I’m pleased with my vote. After eight years of incompetence, I’m still thrilled that we are distancing ourselves from illegal wars and the suspension of our civil rights. He’s reversing many of the horrible environmental decisions and he’s allowing women who have been raped and oppressed to seek refuge in America. He’s not beholden to the religious right…where abstinence is the only way. Thank God things have changed, and for the whiners here…every night…get over it; you have another 7 and a half years before you have a chance again to get another jack@ss in the White House. God help us if it’s another dunce like Palin, Mormon flip flopper Romney or wife deserter Gingrich. Face it…the GOP is the party of the obsolete.
You hate our president, and you’ve hated and destroyed our nation for long enough. Either get in line and pledge your allegiance…or take a hike. Isn’t that what you used to say, Repugs, when we criticized Vietnam deserter Bush–the silver spoon boy who never succeeded at anything in his life unless daddy gave it to him. Obama is the true American dream: no one ever gave him everything, but he’s a bit different from our past presidents, so our GOP friends can’t handle the differences. Time to move aside, prehistoric party. Bye Bye now…

“repugs” “silver spoon boy”, “Time to move aside, prehistoric party. Bye Bye now…”
Yep, thanks for the mature contribution to our discussion. Extremely persuasive.

I love BO’s reach to the dictator. He supports the man that went against his own countries constitution. Has BO ever picked the right people? Nope!

Oh, you bet- that’s the problem, the whole world just isn’t seeing enough of this dunce.
Please oh please, jam his smirking mug onto every possible technical device so we can gaze upon dear leader’s condescending visage at all hours of the day.
“For example, the US embassy in Freetown gave “micro-grants” to dozens of movie theaters throughout Sierra Leone that showed the President’s speech in Ghana live, free of charge to all who came.”
Neato- my tax dollars used to promote the ohblahblah junta…goebbels would be ever so proud.
““The key part,” Michale continued, “is to keep them engaged, is to continue to provide content and information which is of value to them, things which they want to receive, information which they are seeking…”
Ah, if only there were content and information about little things like why the stimulus is tanking, deficits are soaring, unemployment is raging, and so on instead of jugears the dunce bald faced lying about what he said less than six months ago. That’s information I’m seeking- where is it?
Pathetic, sad, empty suited joke- sadly the laugh is on all of us.

But he is still failing…

One writer said we still have 7 1/2 years left of Obama. Not true. He’ll be lucky if he survives four years without being impeached. Once the American people, who are definitely asleep — just like before Pearl Harbor, wake up to the awful fact of the unconstitutional destruction he is wrecking on America and its institutions, both public and private, Obama will be out. And along with him will go the socialist cabal currently supporting him. America isn’t a bananna republic yet. It will wake up before Obama manages to make it one.

Watch the next elections. They will be the forecast of Obama and America’s fate. Many Democrats (sorry — Socialists) such as the governor of NJ are in trouble. They should just officially join the socialist party. That would be more truthful. I’m quite sure we’ll see a large percentage of these clowns thrown out in up coming elections (2009 through 2010). That will leave Obama isolated. If he survives until 2012, he will be thrown out of office then and can go back to shilling for ACORN or other criminal communist organizations.

“Despite coming from money, Obama was still able able to use his “minority” status to his advantage in applying to colleges.”
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Give it a break. Not nearly in the ‘money’ like George Bush.
George W. Bush was born into a rich, powerful oil and banking family, did not distinguish himself academically, became involved in cross use of cocaine and alcohol (a self-confessed alcoholic), was propped up into the baseball and oil business by his family and family friends, and then made good use of family money and connections to get elected into politics.

phony moderate . . .
George W. Bush was born into a rich, powerful oil and banking family, did not distinguish himself academically, became involved in cross use of cocaine and alcohol (a self-confessed alcoholic), was propped up into the baseball and oil business by his family and family friends, and then made good use of family money and connections to get elected into politics.
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It’s pretty sad when you have to frame posting facts as ‘spewing hate’. Sad you cannot distinguish the difference, but then again you are far from fair-minded.
When you have trouble disputing facts you attack the poster. Cheap.

Danita wrote “When you have trouble disputing facts you attack the poster.” I am disputing your your claims (not “facts”) that:
- Obama “came from money” or “lived in luxury”? His book indicates his family was middle class, and lived in an apartment in Honolulu when Obama was a teen. Money was a problem, according to his book.
- “Obama was still able able to use his “minority” status to his advantage in applying to colleges.” I don’t recall reading that in “Dreams.” Is it speculation, or is it backed by empirical evidence?
- Frank Marshall Davis was his mentor? “Dreams From My Father” belies that claim. Although Obama’s book indicates “Frank” was a family friend who offered him advice on racial issues, Obama wrote that Davis “fell short” and his views were “incurable.” Obama did not even visit Davis for three years before going to college. Obama’s book, itself, proves that Obama did not consider Davis to be a “wise and trusted counselor,” which is the definition of “mentor.” By what creative definition can Davis be considered his “mentor”?
It appears that you believe right-wing propaganda, spread through Cliff Kincaid’s Konservative Kool-Aid, regarding the Davis-Obama relationship. I await primary source evidence, in lieu of speculation, in support of your “facts.”

Oops! Sorry. Corrected Copy:
Danilo wrote “When you have trouble disputing facts you attack the poster.” I am disputing your claims not “facts”) that:
- Obama “came from money” or “lived in luxury”? His book indicates his family was middle class, and lived in an apartment in Honolulu when Obama was a teen. Money was a problem, according to his book.
- “Obama was still able able to use his “minority” status to his advantage in applying to colleges.” I don’t recall reading that in “Dreams.” Is it speculation, or is it backed by empirical evidence?
- Frank Marshall Davis was his mentor? “Dreams From My Father” belies that claim. Although Obama’s book indicates “Frank” was a family friend who offered him advice on racial issues, Obama wrote that Davis “fell short” and his views were “incurable.” Obama did not even visit Davis for three years before going to college. Obama’s book, itself, proves that Obama did not consider Davis to be a “wise and trusted counselor,” which is the definition of “mentor.” By what creative definition can Davis be considered his “mentor”?
It appears that you believe right-wing propaganda regarding the Davis-Obama relationship. I await primary source evidence, in lieu of speculation, in support of your “facts.”