Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Kings speech?

Well not exactly. Seems like after Prime Minister Netanyahu came here this week and spoke to congress, the president's speech was much anticipated before the British parliament.

Netanyahu hit a grand slam and the president apparently grounded out to third based upon the reviews.  Maybe it was too much for him. Or maybe his teleprompter let him down.....

Maybe it was too much for him
Perhaps Mr Obama was smothered also by his audience, which remained stubbornly unresponsive. For most of the time the President had nothing to bounce off: no applause and certainly no shouts of praise or blame as might be heard in an American church or at an American political rally. 

The presidential text sounded as if it had been worked on so hard and conscientiously by a vast team of helpers that it had lost all savour, and been reduced to a series of orotund banalities, of the sort which can be heard at every tedious Anglo-American conference: “Profound challenges stretch out before us…the time for our leadership is now…Our alliance will remain indispensable.”
 It did not help to hear Mr Obama assert, after only a minute or two, that “fortunately it’s been smooth sailing” between Britain and the United States “ever since” 1812, when we burned down the White House. Everyone present will have been able to think of occasions when this was not so. Suez did not seem like plain sailing.

Yeah, 'smooth sailing.' That's the ticket.....

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