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The Waterloo Room
Hats off to Mr. Obama. If you haven't been following the Nobel Prize.... thing.... take a moment to view the very brief clip posted above.
Obama could have made his acceptance speech about himself. He could have made it about how bad Mr. Bush was as president, and he could have used it to suck up to the Europeans, the Chinese or anybody else.
But he didn't.
In addition to being a job well-done, this was something else for the White House: a golden opportunity.
This was a golden opportunity for the Obama administration to say to the people and leaders of those nations who find it so convenient to bash America that he is an American Commander-in-Chief first and always; not merely a global citizen. He was given the opportunity to say clearly to the entire global peace movement: I will fight wars to ensure the safety of my citizens and the security of America, her friends and allies.
This is a great political win for the administration, because it gave Mr. Obama an opportunity to look tough and assertive and against-the-grain at a time when many - certainly myself included - continue to question certain of his foreign policy initiatives.
Of course, the Obama White House was either too cautious or too classy to do more to contrast themselves with peaceniksin an attempt to win over more Independents and open-minded Republicans at home; he could have gone even further and showed and even clearer contrast because Obama-esque realism and pascifist utopianism. That they did not go further is laudable.
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