Has the long-awaited European disappointment with the Obama Administration already begun?
Writing for the publisher of Germany’s Die Zeit, Josef Joffe, relates how the appearance of Vice President Joe Biden at the Munich conference on Security was anything but encouraging.
“At the Munich Conference on Security, Joe Biden received the longest and loudest applause – despite an imperial performance that would have elicited a “Mamma mia!” from Mussolini. The U.S. Vice President even brought a special lectern with him to the Bavarian court, and half of Munich was paralyzed to permit his 20-car entourage to zip through.
“All of this is reminiscent of the Jewish joke, in which a poor man complains to a rabbi that he has to share his one-room cottage with six children, his wife and his in-laws. The rabbi advises him to bring in a billy goat. After a week the man returns in despair; he can’t take it anymore. “Good,” says the rabbi, “now take the stinker back out.” Days later, the wise man wanted to know how things were going for the man now. “Wonderful!” The goat (aka George W.) is gone, but the facts remain.”
By Josef Joffe
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
February 12, 2009
Germany – Die Zeit – Original Article (German)
The world wants to love America again, Josef Joffe observed in Munich.At the Munich Conference on Security, Joe Biden received the longest and loudest applause – despite an imperial performance that would have elicited a “Mamma mia!” from Mussolini . The U.S. Vice President even brought a special lectern with him to the Bavarian court, and half of Munich was paralyzed to permit his 20-car entourage to zip through.
And yet: the collective sigh of relief in the hall was palpable. “We want to love America again” was the silent message. Even Russia’s first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, purred like a kitten compared to Vladimir Putin, who at virtually the same place two years earlier, all but declared the second Cold War.
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