A Chinese View of the Obama Presidency and America as a World Power.

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Global Times of China   Entire article quoted below:

The US midterm elections kicked off Tuesday. The overall situation does not favor President Barack Obama. In the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Democrat seats are likely to decrease. The Republicans also aim for a big change in the Senate so as to control both houses of Congress. If so, the lame-duck president will be further crippled.

US public opinion has downgraded Obama. Former president George W. Bush met with criticism due to his failure in the war on terror.

Obama always utters "Yes, we can," which led to the high expectations people had for him. But he has done an insipid job, offering nearly nothing to his supporters. US society has grown tired of his banality.

Undoubtedly, Obama is one of the post-Cold War presidents who had to undergo difficult times. He has encountered the global financial crisis and the decline of US influence. He has found many thorny problems because he is the first African-American president in history. As a result, he can only get limited tolerance and acceptance.

Obama has behaved much more prudently than most of his predecessors, and has thus lacked the ability to push forward complicated issues. What's worse, Obama is in the midst of a time when partisan politics is becoming more extreme.

That party interests are placed higher than the interests of the country and its people is an inherent shortcoming of Western political systems. The problem is particularly acute when the US undergoes difficulties. Cohesion in American society is diminishing.

Obama's best performance is empty rhetoric, while he achieved nothing on issues such as lowering the income gap. The American people have not benefited from the economic recovery.

In foreign policy, Obama must also take his share of the blame. He has managed to take US troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but left no peace. Osama Bin Laden was killed during his tenure, but the IS has emerged from the Middle East.

Moreover, the Ukrainian crisis has almost brought Europe back to the Cold War era, and his pivot to Asia strategy only increased mistrust between China and the US and among East Asian countries.

The US public used to speak highly of Obama, but now many seem to have reversed their opinions. Bush, who dared to do everything, and Obama, who dares to do nothing, come from different parties but have the same destiny. Is this their problem or the problem of the US system?

Renowned scholar Francis Fukuyama believes it is due to dysfunction in the US system. But many others do not. They believe their country only needs a new president.

With China's rise, we gradually have the ability to have a clear understanding of the US. The country is too lazy to reform. US society selected Obama, but there is no great American president in this era

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An Israeli man was nearly lynched Sunday night by a violent Arab mob. The potential victim was saved – by an Arab.

United with Israel   ... "An eyewitness to the attack told Israel’s Ynet about the extreme violence he saw: “More than 20 people, a few of them masked, stopped the car and began to throw stones and launch firecrackers. They took the driver out of the car and began to beat him all over his body while shouting Allah Akbar.”

"An Arab who was driving by, identified only as Makdy, saw the developing lynch and went to save the Israeli. He told IDF Radio that “during the first moments I did not think twice. Someone threw rocks but I stopped him. I took him [the Israeli] into my car and drove away quickly, and then dropped him off at a police checkpoint.' ”

WATCH: The scene of violence after an Israeli man escaped. Click below
 

Rush Limbaugh Threatens To Sue Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

NY Daily News:  "Limbaugh charges that the DCCC sent out a letter that distorted comments he delivered on his syndicated radio show in September, making it appear he might excuse sexual assault. The letter also called for respondents to boycott Limbaugh’s advertisers.

"Limbaugh’s attorney Patty Glaser sent a letter to the DCCC Monday demanding an apology and a retraction, then warning that even if he got them, he still might sue."
 
Daily Caller

 

 

... “Let’s be clear: Rush Limbaugh is advocating for the tolerance of rape” the DCCC stated in a September fundraising email after Limbaugh mocked Ohio State’s new mandatory sexual consent guidelines. (RELATED: Democrats Attack Rush Limbaugh On Way To November Loss)

"Limbaugh’s team said that the DCCC’s campaign against Limbaugh provides grounds for a defamation case, based on legal precedent."

Fox News:  “The DCCC may believe it to be immune from liability by quoting words, taken out of context. This is untrue,” [ Limbaugh's attorney Patty] Glaser said. “There is significant on point precedent in the 9th Circuit for holding an organization responsible for falsifying meaning through selective quoting. In Price v. Stossel, the court held that, if a party accurately quotes ‘a statement actually made by a public figure, but presents the statement in a misleading context, thereby changing the viewer’s understanding of the speaker’s words,’ that constitutes defamation.”

Obama won 2014 non-vote in landslide

Legal Insurrection

 

Not sure how many more of these victories Democrats can take.   "Byron York remarks on one of the more remarkable aspects of Obama’s post-election press conference, the notion that those who did not vote have given him a mandate:

President Obama did something extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented, in his post-election news conference Wednesday: He claimed a mandate on behalf of voters who didn’t vote.
“To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you,” the president said. “To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too.”
What did that mean? What did those non-voters say?
It would probably be more useful to ask what the president heard. And apparently Obama heard expressions of support from non-voters across the land.   More...

Beijing sees the US president as a weak leader in the autumn of his presidency

Financial Times

 

"Second-term US presidents traditionally seek solace on the global stage. Barack Obama is no exception. Following last week’s drubbing in the US midterm elections, he lands in China on Monday for a summit with Xi Jinping. He is unlikely to find Beijing more pliable than Washington DC. As time goes on, it becomes ever harder to separate his domestic weakness from his global standing. Even the tone is spreading. “US society has grown tired of [Obama’s] banality,” China’s semi-official Global Times said last week.' " ... 

On his last visit to China, when he was still riding high at home, Mr Obama was treated shabbily by his hosts. Today’s much-diminished figure is unlikely to have greater sway.

Also from Drudge:  Condi: The world isn’t listening to the U.S.  "Condoleezza Rice slammed the Obama administration’s handling of Iraq and America’s lack of strength on the world stage, saying that “nobody listens” when the U.S. isn’t leading."

The day a Holocaust survivor got revenge on his tormentor

 NY Post via Weasel Zippers

 

"He survived the savagery of the Holocaust, made it to America with barely a penny and became a world-famous tailor in Brooklyn, dressing celebrities and presidents. In his new memoir, “Measure of a Man,” Martin Greenfield tells the story of his extraordinary life. In this excerpt, he explains how the concentration camps nearly stripped him of his humanity at age 16 — and the day he got it back."...

Residents from Weimar avert their eyes as American forces make them walk past a pile of corpses at the

 Buchenwald concentration camp.

 

Chris Hayes’ Attkisson Interview Sums Up MSNBC’s Issues in One Question

Mediaite

 

"This is the tale of two journalists.

 

"One has won multiple Emmy awards going back to the turn of the century, including an investigative series at the end of the Bush 43 years titled, “Bush Administration’s Bait and Switch on TARP and the Bank Bailout.” Another report revealed fraud around multi-billion dollar Halliburton contracts in Iraq, which earned her ample praise from the left. Sharyl Attkisson also was one of the first journalists to fly combat missions over Kosovo.

 

"The other journalist is the former editor of The Nation magazine. He hasn’t won any Emmy awards and invariably finishes a distant third in his 8:00 p.m. MSNBC time slot in a three horse race. Chris Hayes hasn’t flown in any combat missions as a journalist, but was hit by a modest rock covering the Ferguson riots this past August." ...

...

"Hayes interview of Ms. Attkisson "included the host asking his guest if she was angling for a job at Fox News — the only thought that comes mind is the following:

 

"He has some balls asking that question. And no, that’s not meant as a compliment. Hayes questioning someone as decorated and objective as Attkisson if she fabricated an allegation against the government (for hacking her computer) was somehow motivated because she needed to enhance already one of the most — if not the most — extensive resumes in investigative journalism would be like Arsenio Hall asking Johnny Carson if he knew how to effectively interview a guest."

More here.

Matthews Reveals MSNBC Hosts, Anchors Under ‘Group Pressure’ to Be More Partisan

Returning UK Islamist fighters offered ‘jihadi rehab’ instead of prosecution for supporting blood-thirsty terrorist groups despite May's pledges

Infidel Bloggers Alliance brings us this next piece of good cheer:

UK Daily Mail   "Returning Islamist fighters are being offered ‘jihadi rehab’ instead of prosecution for supporting blood-thirsty terrorist groups.

"The vast majority of more than 300 young men who have arrived back from Syria and Iraq are being allowed to continue their normal lives.

"Many have been offered places on the Government’s counter-radicalisation scheme, known as the Channel programme, which has seen a substantial rise in referrals." ... More here.

 

 

You suppose liberals in the US will let them join the VFW?

CBS Announces ‘Mentalist’ Return Date

The American Culture

 

"There’s good news for TV mystery fans: CBS-TV has announced that The Mentalist will return for its seventh and final season beginning November 30. In the first week of January the show will switch to Wednesdays at 8:00 EST. The show will wrap up with a two-hour series finale on Feb. 18.

 

"Starring Simon Baker as the title character, a consulting detective working, for five seasons, with the California Bureau of Investigation, and then with the FBI in the most recent season, The Mentalist presented interesting storylines underscored by the protagonist’s tragic past: his wife and daughter were murdered just before the events of the first episode. Baker, however, kept things from becoming too lugubrious, lending the character a good deal of personal charm and times of cheerfulness. That was an excellent decision on the part of the actor and writers.

"Unsure of whether the show would be renewed after season six, the producers resolved the main storylines in the last few episodes of last season, with Baker’s character, Patrick Jane, finally expressing his romantic feelings toward his boss, Special Agent Teresa Lisbon, in the final episode of the season. right before the last couple of episodes aired, CBS announced that the show would return this season.

"With the big, emotional storylines having been settled (while leaving plenty of room for new complications), the show’s creator and executive producer, Bruno Heller, has described the upcoming season as an “encore.” That suggests that the show will be more like TV series used to be: a collection of episodes, each of which largely stands on its own. Now, that would be a real innovation."
 

There’s good news for TV mystery fans: CBS-TV has announced that The Mentalist will return for its seventh and final season beginning November 30. In the first week of January the show will switch to Wednesdays at 8:00 EST. The show will wrap up with a two-hour series finale on Feb. 18.

Starring Simon Baker as the title character, a consulting detective working, for five seasons, with the California Bureau of Investigation, and then with the FBI in the most recent season, The Mentalist presented interesting storylines underscored by the protagonist’s tragic past: his wife and daughter were murdered just before the events of the first episode. Baker, however, kept things from becoming too lugubrious, lending the character a good deal of personal charm and times of cheerfulness. That was an excellent decision on the part of the actor and writers."

Did you know Baker is Australian?

Harry Reid’s Desk

Bokbluster

 

"A year ago President Obama said, “If you don’t like a particular policy, if you don’t like a particular president, go out there and argue your position, win an election.”

 

"And so it came to pass.

 

"Now that his party has lost the Senate, Obama says he’s willing to listen to Republican ideas – if they have any. Whether he is or they do remains to be seen. But they have had some ideas in the past. Those ideas were packaged into about 350 House Resolutions and passed on to the Senate where they sit in Harry Reid’s desk.

 

"The way Mitch McConnell sees it Reid protected the president from legislation he didn’t like by not bringing bills to his desk.

 

"The New York Times, in January, called Harry a brute."

Politifact, however, says some of those bills are simply caught up in committee. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post says it’s not at all unusual for Harry Reid to have 300 bills to be stuffed in his drawers.

The UK Reports:Jacksonville Jaguars 17-31 Dallas Cowboys: Tony Romo leads Dallas to Wembley victory as Cowboys knock the spots off Jaguars

UK Daily Mail

• Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and team-mates get first win in three games against the Jacksonville Jaguars
• The Cowboys dominated the Jaguars throughout the game held at Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening 
• Romo threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns against a Jacksonville team who have won just once this season

The Jaguars squad emerges from the tunnel ready for battle in front of an electrified crowd at the sold out

 Wembley Stadium.

The armed forces lead the way in observing a minute's silence in front of a capacity crowd at Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening

 More pictures in the article here.

Defying Soviets, Then Pulling Hungary to Putin 25 Years After Fall of the Berlin Wall

NY Times  ... "Viktor Orban was 26 then and a longhaired law graduate. In June 1989, five months before the Berlin Wall came down, he lit up a commemoration of the failed 1956 revolt against Moscow with a bold call for free elections and a demand that 80,000 Soviet troops go home.

 

"Now, as the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is commemorated Sunday, Hungary is a member of NATO and the European Union and Mr. Orban is in his third term as prime minister. But what was once a journey that might have embodied the triumph of democratic capitalism has evolved into a much more complex tale of a country and a leader who in the time since have come to question Western values, foment nationalism and look more openly at Russia as a model."...

From Hungary Today, we see that Mr. Obama has had ongoing issues with the nation.

Looks like Obama gives Hungary the same headaches he gives America for some of the same reasons:  PM Orbán: US Weighs Pressure On Hungary
... "Washington weighs great pressure on Hungary due to its objections to the South Stream pipeline and the upgrade of the nuclear power plant in Paks, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán told at the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich. " ...