Obama Meets with McChrystal in Copenhagen
EmailABC News' Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller report:
In a surprise and secretly coordinated meeting, President Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal had a 25 minute meeting on Air Force One today to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Shortly before departing Copenhagen, Denmark, the two held their first face-to-face meeting since May while Air Force One was on the tarmac ready to fly back to Washington, D.C.
McChrystal, Obama’s top Afghanistan commander, had been in London giving a speech yesterday and flew to Copenhagen specifically to meet President Obama.
On Wednesday, McChrystal participated in the president’s three hour national security council meeting via secured video conference from Afghanistan.
McChrystal left Air Force One after meeting with the president. Aides say the general will return to Afghanistan Saturday. President Obama is en route back to Washington and will land early this afternoon.
– Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller
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it appears wherever our president goes and does he is always working, doing his job. thank GOD for him.
Posted by: rhc2749 | October 2, 2009, 9:18 am 9:18 am
What no bashing no putting the President down oh haters cheer up we have a President now that can multi- task. Imagine that dont be sad because Bush couldnt multi- task, Dont hate on the President because he is capable of doing alot of things at once.
Posted by: Angie in PA | October 2, 2009, 9:19 am 9:19 am
He can multi task all right, he is only speaking to the general because the people knew it has been 70 days or more since they spoke. Don’t you see the pattern? When he gets busted on something, lo and behold he does it then! What a joke!
Posted by: lyineyes1956 | October 2, 2009, 9:30 am 9:30 am
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 28% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10 .
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | October 2, 2009, 9:39 am 9:39 am
The latest Fox News/Opinion Dymanic poll is chock-full of bad news for the president. But on foreign policy, the results are nothing short of stunning. On who they trust more to decide the next steps in Afghanistan. 66 percent say military commanders, while only 20 percent say the president. Even Democrats have more faith in the military commanders (by a 45 to 37 percent margin). On Iran, 69 percent say Obama has not been tough enough, including 55 percent of Democrats.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | October 2, 2009, 9:50 am 9:50 am
RASMUSSEN
A conservative polling! owned and funded by republicans oh say it aint so!
Posted by: Angie in PA | October 2, 2009, 10:02 am 10:02 am
There is no doubt, that was not an amiable meeting.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | October 2, 2009, 10:06 am 10:06 am
We need to be doing secure telecommuting to save fuel. Flying a 747 is a bit much when we are totally broke.
Posted by: Huh | October 2, 2009, 10:08 am 10:08 am
Who cares? Unless he needs a hug, I don’t see what Obama can get from McChrystal in person that he hasn’t already got from him in reports, meeting with his superiors, or teleconferencing. It’s not like anyone wants Obama micromanaging his field commanders.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 2, 2009, 10:08 am 10:08 am
“We need to be doing secure telecommuting to save fuel. Flying a 747 is a bit much when we are totally broke.”
Huh | Oct 2, 2009 10:08:01 AM
Still trolling that silly line? Although I do think that the teleconferencing and established chain of command reporting system (which has run a number of wars just fine) is adequate, the US as the most powerful and prosperous free nation in the history of the world can afford Airforce One just fine – regardless of what you and others of your “America is corrupt, broke and stupid” ilk may whine.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 2, 2009, 10:12 am 10:12 am
jhw539″the US as the most powerful and prosperous free nation in the history of the world can afford Airforce One just fine”
Do you actually believe this? We are only rich because we have been able to charge our economic growth to the printing press and foreigners. If I charge VISA endlessly, I would be rich forever, but we all know good things must come to an end. I hate waste, corruption, and hypocrisy so I will troll truth to those ends. You are an Obama troll that lives in some fantasy land, but bad times are coming because the government is broke.
Posted by: Huh | October 2, 2009, 10:19 am 10:19 am
jhw539 – It seems as though you agreed with me yet you want to argue. Kind of weird….
Posted by: Huh | October 2, 2009, 10:24 am 10:24 am
Why Obama makes The Commender in Afganistan’s war waste precious his time? OBAMA’S PROVED THAT TO GET TICKET OLIYMPIC 2016 IN CHICAGO IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR THE PRESIDENT OF USA RATHER THAN TO HAVE A VICTORY
FROM THE WARS SO MAKE WORLD PEACE. OBAMA HUSSEIN IS GENIUS TO SPEND CITIZENS TAEXES AND WASTE TIMES.
Posted by: NECKLECT OF DUTY, BHO | October 2, 2009, 10:36 am 10:36 am
Since Obama became President the war in Afghanistan has gotten worse, more US soldiers have died…meanwhile, on the home front real unemployment is now at 17%.
Both will get worse.
Total failure.
Posted by: Rhonda | October 2, 2009, 10:43 am 10:43 am
“We are only rich because we have been able to charge our economic growth to the printing press and foreigners.”
Huh | Oct 2, 2009 10:19:32 AM
What garbage. We invented the modern mass produced automobile. We invented the computer. We created the internet. We invented the air plane. We dominate the software market. We created the GPS system. We have two robots operating on Mars. California alone has a graduate university system superior to any other country in the world. Our entertainment industry is unparalleled and an export engine.
Your “the US is worthless” fantasy land simply is not supported by reality. America has created enormous real wealth and continues to do so.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 2, 2009, 10:45 am 10:45 am
Of course he met with McChrystal. But only AFTER he has been called out for only meeting with him once. PR is everything!
Posted by: wheresmymoney | October 2, 2009, 10:56 am 10:56 am
hey General hows those Iranian IEDs going
Posted by: everyone must use
– too bad you weren’t so concerned about wasted American military deaths in Iraq, but that would take some careful reasoning on your part which doesn’t fit into the constant barrage of nonsense from the right. You think it’s a game, a high school debate? and that’s it’s funny that Americans are dying?
too bad you can’t experience some time at a real battlefield, in combat. You would quickly learn that your casual idealized war mongering
has consequences, and is not the happy video game you seem to think it is….
Posted by: e pluribus unum | October 2, 2009, 11:04 am 11:04 am
jhw539 – You do live in a fantasy land. What is the national debt? What is the obligatory debt? How much do we produce versus what we consume? How much do we save versus spend? We are broke. How many of us are obese? How corrupt is our government? How unfree are our markets?
I have an advanced degree in engineering and I can tell you that our universities are filled with foreigners in the technical fields. There are very few domestically-born engineers that qualify to work where I do, and we can’t exactly hire foreigners to do the job so you have no idea what you are talking about.
It is true that innovation the key to prosperity, but how can we innovate when our high school students don’t understand basic math. What you need to understand is that the rest of the world is fast catching up to us, and they work for much less, and their young are much better scholastically, and many have surpluses of cash on hand.
The US is broke, and you will realize this sooner or later.
Posted by: Huh | October 2, 2009, 11:05 am 11:05 am
Our entertainment industry is sleaze.
Posted by: Huh | October 2, 2009, 11:06 am 11:06 am
I certainly would love to know how much Chicago-area real estate that Daley and his cronies have bought up in anticipation of Chicago getting the Olympics. I’m sure they will make a pretty penny on it. Yeah, that’s the “Chicago” way. Tony Rezko would be sooooooooo proud.
And of course, on queue, the bashing of the former president begins. At least he gave a darn about the men and women in uniform by giving them what they needed to win.And now, President Kumbaya, is stalling on what they thought of as the righteous war in Afghanistan. Of course, all that “support” was purely for political reasons, and not any real empathy for the effort in that theatre of war.
Posted by: Bryan in OK | October 2, 2009, 11:07 am 11:07 am
‘the lastest Fox news’..
Posted by: Fascist Hyena
now there’s non-biased info to set yer clock by..
pathetic… go find a birth certificate
Posted by: Joe 6 pack | October 2, 2009, 11:09 am 11:09 am
Imagine how proud the case conservatives are. mean and nasty as the only skill in the skill set.
I’m sure your grandmothers would all be proud of you – fighting so hard against the President and country that has given you the freedom to be ignorant.
Posted by: gus amaral | October 2, 2009, 11:09 am 11:09 am
base conservatives.
Posted by: gus amaral | October 2, 2009, 11:09 am 11:09 am
Huh- You convinced me. The US is awful, lazy, corrupt debt ridden, and inferior to most other nations. I’m just too dumb to see it, but what’s your excuse for not leaving?
I have a couple far left friends who declared they could no longer be Americans if Bush was elected to a second term. They now live in Argentina and haven’t been back for a visit since 2006. I respect them a great deal. I do not respect your hypocritical anti-Americanism.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 2, 2009, 11:12 am 11:12 am
And of course, on queue, the bashing of the former president begins. At least he gave a darn about the men and women in uniform by giving them what they needed to win.
______________________
You are under a very false impression.
You have absolutely no idea of what you claim to know. Please explain the 4th and 5th tours of duty within two years.
Your oversimplistic, faux-flag waving defense is without any credibility.
Posted by: g | October 2, 2009, 11:13 am 11:13 am
jhw539 – I choose to stay because America’s founding documents are the greatest foundation for a country ever devised. I just don’t like current trends. I do not like your hypocritical anti-Americanism in which you mask over our real problems and allow everyone to exist in false confidence of our government’s abilities to hand out jobs and make us prosperous. I have nothing against Obama. He has an impossible mess to deal with. By the way I forgot to say that we are an arrogant bully on the world’s stage too. I will continue to fight this as well to make our country better.
Posted by: Huh | October 2, 2009, 11:17 am 11:17 am
NYT: Sept 29, 2009
“G.O.P. Leader Raps Obama’s Olympics Trip”
Call it the Olympic smackdown.
In case President Obama was wondering, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, doesn’t think it’s a good idea for Mr. Obama to go to Copenhagen to make a pitch to the International Olympic Committee to bring the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago.”
_______________________
now we know why the base Repubs are against hosting the Olympics!
How can Mr. Steele NOT want the USA to host the Olympics?
Michael, can I see your birth certificate?
Posted by: Lucy | October 2, 2009, 11:24 am 11:24 am
25 minutes? How odd. That’s barely enough time to say hello and good-bye, much less to discuss something as complicated as the commander’s views on Afghanistan.
Makes me wonder what the real purpose of the face-to-face meeting was for. I don’t give the 3 hour conference all among numerous parties the same weight as one-on-one meetings, nor do I think a 3 hour meeting once in a blue moon is enough time on complex situations, either.
Posted by: SjB | October 2, 2009, 11:32 am 11:32 am
It seems to me that he is always working on his travel plans. Name one thing he said during the campaign that he has accomplished. Don’t worry, I’ll wait………
Posted by: lyineyes1956 | October 2, 2009, 11:33 am 11:33 am
25 minutes.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Posted by: drjohn | October 2, 2009, 11:34 am 11:34 am
on Drudge:
“THE EGO HAS LANDED”
ROFLMAO
Posted by: drjohn | October 2, 2009, 11:40 am 11:40 am
You are under a very false impression.
You have absolutely no idea of what you claim to know. Please explain the 4th and 5th tours of duty within two years.
Your oversimplistic, faux-flag waving defense is without any credibility.
Posted by: g | Oct 2, 2009 11:13:13 AM
Yeah I do – I come from a military family, so I do have some idea of what it takes and what is involved. Obama needs to either sign off on more troops or have the courage to put forth an exit plan, instead of this stalling that puts good people in harms way.
Faux-flag waving defense? Oh brother…
Posted by: Bryan in OK | October 2, 2009, 11:41 am 11:41 am
Joe 6 Pack would probably be stunned to learn that polls commissioned by Fox News are conducted by the firm of Opinion Dynamics, whose results compare favorably with those of Gallup, CNN, USA Today and the others.
Fox News is no more or less unbiased than, say, CBS or NBC. Its polling organisation is professional and unbiased.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | October 2, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am
One wonders what Valerie Jarrett will do now. Her company has run Grove Parc into the ground and now there’s no Olympics to pad her wallet.
Posted by: drjohn | October 2, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am
Well,maybe the quality of his conversation with the general will have been better than the IOC-Chicago eliminated in the first round.What a waste of time;what a complete joke.
Posted by: Nephron | October 2, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am
From Yahoo News:
“If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.”
Obviously what we need is another stimulus from the Apollo Alliance and unemployment will go to 25%.
Posted by: drjohn | October 2, 2009, 11:49 am 11:49 am
Obama Meets with McChrystal in Copenhagen:
Well at least he got something accomplished.
Posted by: 'Un-Amercican' | October 2, 2009, 11:50 am 11:50 am
“I have a couple far left friends who declared they could no longer be Americans if Bush was elected to a second term. They now live in Argentina and haven’t been back for a visit since 2006. I respect them a great deal. I do not respect your hypocritical anti-Americanism.”
Posted by: JWH539
You respect someone who cuts and runs and don’t respect someone who stays to fight for what they believe in? I think you’ve got that “anti-Americanism” backwards.
Posted by: Rican | October 2, 2009, 12:18 pm 12:18 pm
Looks like Rahm is going to have a bit of a problem coming up with those “good tickets” for Obama’s critics.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | October 2, 2009, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
In addressing the General Assembly, Obama actually said, “No one nation can . . . dominate another nation.” That adolescent mindlessness was followed with the declaration that “alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War” in fact “make no sense in an interconnected world.” NATO, our alliances with Japan and South Korea, our umbrella over Taiwan, are senseless? What do our allies think when they hear such nonsense?
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | October 2, 2009, 12:29 pm 12:29 pm
It looks like the IOC let Obama know exactly what they thought of him and his presidency. NIX.
It appears that Obama does not understand the Europeans any better than he does the Americans. It’s hard being green.
Posted by: SjB | October 2, 2009, 12:32 pm 12:32 pm
Did Obama really think he could diminish the US, badmouthing it endlessly and then entirely on the strength of his own superman ego bring home the Olympics?
Asked and answered.
Posted by: drjohn | October 2, 2009, 12:44 pm 12:44 pm
A British perspective from the UK Daily Mail:
“Barack Obama has been humiliated on the world stage after the International Olympic Committee rejected his very personal bid for the 2016 Olympic Games to be hosted in his hometown of Chicago.”
Humiliated. Worse than Carter.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | October 2, 2009, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | Oct 2, 2009 12:57:27 PM
_________________________
posting comments from news agency blog sites is not “news”. just opinion.
No one’s going to enlighten you, nor question your position…being one of those who are “always right, but frequently mislead”
have a great life.
Posted by: Conserva Tiff | October 2, 2009, 2:52 pm 2:52 pm
Nothing but another photo-op – the only reason he saw the guy at all was to blunt criticism that he hadn’t spoken with him in months. A 25 minute conversation ……is that a joke, or what? What an in-depth conversation that must have been.
Posted by: Terry | October 3, 2009, 5:11 am 5:11 am
THE WHITE HOUSE HAS BEEN TOTALLY TRAINING CERTER FOR OBAMA & RAMBO EMMANUEL. HOW SUCH PRESIDENT OF USA CAN HAVE TOP PRIORITY MEETING at Copenhagen
where failed to bid to be hosted the game, 2016 !!!!!! Obama has no idea at all for safe of American.
Posted by: jr-ny | October 3, 2009, 9:19 pm 9:19 pm
That time with McChrystal might have been actually spent chewing the General out for going public.
Posted by: drjohn | October 5, 2009, 8:08 am 8:08 am
We closed our News Bureaus around the world and punditry substitutes for correspondents. The media and their partisanship is useless to those of us who want unfiltered news.
Posted by: Constant Gina | October 5, 2009, 8:25 am 8:25 am
….thank God Chicago was bounced quickly in Copeenhagen so the POTUS could have a FULL 25 MINUTES TO MEET WITH HIS “COMMANDER ON THE FIELD.”
I am so tired of the Presidency being a job where on-the-job training seems to be available to anyone who applies.
Posted by: justj joey | October 5, 2009, 11:04 am 11:04 am
“We closed our News Bureaus around the world and punditry substitutes for correspondents. The media and their partisanship is useless to those of us who want unfiltered news.”
A Sacred Heart University poll found that Fox News was, by far, the LEAST trusted news organization. Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly said: “For doing the study, the folks at Sacred Heart are patriots.”
Posted by: WWW | October 5, 2009, 11:11 am 11:11 am