Sulfur

During the latter years of George W. Bush’s presidency, the MSM reveled in every instance of international umbrage at his policies, his speeches, his overall cowboy persona. When an Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at Bush, the MSM was barely able to conceal its glee. When Hugo Chavez, the two-bit, dictatorial, neo-Communist leader who is single-handedly wrecking Venezuela, suggested at the UN that Bush was the devil ("It smells like sulfur here”), network anchors replayed the translation of the speech as if it were a homily by the Pope.

Did you know that in his anti-Capitalist speech at the now-failed Copenhagen Climate Summit, Hugo Chavez mentioned sulfur yet again?

"Which is why Evo [Morales of Bolivia, a Chavez acolyte] tells a great truth: If Obama, Nobel War Prize, said here ... by the way, it smells of sulfur here.

"It smells of sulfur. It keeps smelling of sulfur in this world.

"The Nobel War Prize [Obama] has just said here that he came to act. Well, then show it, sir, don’t leave by the back door, eh?"

Hmmmm. So much for our President’s ill-advised attempts at rapprochement with Chavez.

Interestingly, the MSM in the United States didn’t quite treat Chavez’s sulfuric comments about Obama with the same intensity that they applied to identical comments about Bush. Why is that?

I think part of the reason is that bad people (and Chavez, among far too many world leaders, is a bad person) are not impressed by “soft” power, conciliatory gestures, or attempts at rapprochement. They view those who use "soft" approaches with contempt.

That harsh reality flies in the face of the progressive meme that suggests that “soft” power, conciliatory gestures, or attempts at rapprochement are the only effective tools in foreign policy. Chavez’s comments belie the meme and hence, are better left unreported.

After observing President Obama on the international stage for the past 11 months, it’s pretty obvious he’s on a very steep learning curve. He seems unable to grasp the most important lesson of all—that the harsh realities of international relations demand toughness and tough actions.

Based on Obama's "soft" actions, clowns like Chavez and serious players like Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian strongman Vladimir Putan (not to mention the mullahs in Iran) will treat the President and our country with contempt. If this continues over the next few years, Barack Obama will be a one-term president.