Obama Not Impressed

By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 11/17/2012 - 10:17am |

Meeting with hard-to-impress McKayla, Obama did his best to keep up appearances - some might say upstaging her.

URL:

http://www.politico.com/gallery/2012/11/this-week-in-photos/000562-008099.html

Add new comment
2564 reads

Comments

That was precious.

Our president seems more relaxed these days. As well he might.

I am not exactly sure why he was in Myanmar and Cambodia recently, with, oh, war breaking out in the Middle East, the upcoming budget decisions, etc.

Somehow I suspect he was getting briefed regularly while he was there. I wonder at what point the advent of modern technologies will mitigate concerns about the optics in situations like this, where the president is seen by some as inappropriately "sidetracked" by lower priority matters at the expense of appropriate attention to higher priority ones?

by AmericanDreamer on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 9:40am

Specifically, he's in Myanmar/Burma to meet dissident Aung San Suu Kyi after her release and election to Parliament, as followup to Hillary's visit as followup to years of negotiations to open up from the Communist junta there. The prisoner release over the last days has been a sham, but still, the progress in Burma over the last year is striking. Hope it lasts.

And yeah, we can do something besides the Mideast for a change. So boring.

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 11:22am

Spoken like a true Obamabot.

by Verified Atheist on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 2:19pm

Yep, climbing aboard the Love Train - preaching Hope and (Regime) Change.

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 4:10pm

From that I've been reading this is a big issue for McConnell who has been leading on Myanmar/Burma for the last 20 years. McConnell visited at the begining of this year. I'd guess one of Obama's reasons in making this visit is McConnell's interest in the country.

by ocean-kat on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 3:16pm

Nope, Burma is Hillary's baby, Dec 2011 visit to Suu Kyi.

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 4:07pm

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-12/Mitch-Mc...

"McConnell has been the leader here in the U.S. on Burma for the last 20 years, and he will be able to sit down at the table with Suu Kyi and go over (the reforms under way) … and to see what is the best way to encourage and promote this nascent reform as she sees it and make sure we don't have a backslide," Quigley said.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-16/mcconnel...

After an emotional first meeting with Burma democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that more steps towards reform probably will ease U.S. and Western sanctions against that Southeast Asian nation.

McConnell has been the leading critic of the Burma junta for nearly two decades and has cosponsored the economic sanctions bills passed by Congress to pressure the government to end political repression and ethnic persecution.

In a joint press conference on the side porch of her house, Suu Kyi thanked McConnell for his long efforts to keep Burma in the international eye.

"That is why I trust his judgment, and I know that he will be watching the situation closely to find out what needs to be done, and as (a) seasoned democratic politician, he'll be able to judge how far we are progressing along the road to democratization," Suu Kyi said.

by ocean-kat on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 4:22pm

McConnell said he has consulted with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding Burma. In December, she became the first American official to visit the nation in a half century.

"The attitude of this government — and I'm going to make it clear that that's true on a bipartisan basis — is that as these various steps are taken, we will evaluate them one at a time in terms of their significance and respond accordingly down the road with actions on our part," McConnell said.

He said he hoped that the U.S. could have an ambassador in Burma in the "not too distant future" and might consider eliminating sanctions "at some point."

...

When Clinton visited, she and Suu Kyi instantly connected, according to published reports. The pair held a news conference in which Clinton said she thought the Burmese government was making progress but needed to implement additional reforms. She also said Suu Kyi would be "an excellent member of the parliament."

Grrrl power in Rangoon... sorry, Mitch.... and with Obama's visit, Dems own it.

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 4:43pm

Laura Bush and Aung San Suu Kyi: Been there done that. Article from 2007.

More recently: WSJ.

by wabby on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 5:12pm

All fine, but Suu Kyi was put back under house arrest in 2009, and Hillary used her post as Secretary of State to move the situation forward to help get Suu Kyi released, including negotiations with Burma's President and a typical small bribe. Now diplomatic relations are back on track, with Suu Kyi having stood for and won a seat in parliament, now leading the opposition. Visit by the US President trumps an op-ed or 5-year-old committee by a First Lady or visit by Senate Minority Leader.

(and trumps her own Senate votes in 2007 against the Burmese junta: