U.S. Media Ignoring Obama Mistakes With India/Pakistan

Friday, November 28th at 6:11AM EDT

7 Comments

Recommenders: redneck_hippie (Diary)

Naturally, the U.S. media is following the terrorist crimes in Mumbai, India, as well they should. But, the attacks seem to be the Old Media’s only interest where it concerns India and Pakistan, of late, for they’ve completely ignored the several mistakes that Barack Obama has already made with his attempts at foreign policy with the two embattled nations.

Back on November 11, I noted that Obama had made his first mistakes with both India and Pakistan by mishandling early talks with their leaders (or not having them at all, as the case may be). During his first major effort to contact foreign leaders as president elect, Obama called Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari but neglected to call India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. This short shrifting did not sit well with the Indian government.

Then, Obama appointed to his transition team a woman named Sonal Shah whom the Pakistanis say has ties with a violent Hindu Nationalist Party in India that they claim is responsible for a rampage in Gujarat, India that killed many Muslims and Christians.

Worse, during his outreach to Pakistan’s Zardari, Obama promised that he’d help settle the trouble between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and he did this without asking India if his help was wanted by India. As a result, India got its nose out of joint and immediately said that Obama’s “help” with Kashmir was not wanted.

Well, more on Obama’s unwanted offer with the Kashmir problem has been reported by various Indian and Pakistani news agencies. An Indian official has reiterated that Obama’s help with Kashmir was neither asked for nor wanted. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee refused Obama’s offer again at a recent press conference held with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The Indian Express news group reports that on Wednesday Mukherjee “shot down US President-elect Barack Obama’s suggestion that former US President Bill Clinton could prod India and Pakistan into making peace over Kashmir.”

The remarks were also reported at KashmirWatch.com.

On Jammu and Kashmir, Mukherjee rejected any third party interference, when asked to comment on the reports that the US president-elect was moving to appoint Bill Clinton as his emissary to settle Kashmir issue. “There was no question of the intervention of third party. Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. It is part of composite dialogue process,” he stressed.

These are some embarrassing stumbles on India and Pakistan and shows that Obama won’t be able to flash his dazzling smile and have the world’s leaders just fall at the feet of The One happy to follow his policy ideas.

Curiously, I can’t find this news reporting Obama’s thus far failed attempts at diplomacy in any American news source. Why do you think that is?

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7 Comments Leave a comment

The Media knows they went too far during the elections.

Mord (Diary) Friday, November 28th at 9:17AM EDT (link)

If they were to suddenly switch from being Obama’s biggest cheerleader to his biggest (and only) critic before he even takes office, more Americans might start seeing the elephant in the room that is Obama’s incredible lack of experience. His first term as POTUS will be the longest consecutive time he has held a single job in his lifetime. This could be disasterous for our country. What will happen when the majority of America realizes they have been duped into voting for a cypher of a man who literally has no background with which to judge or predict his actions.

Actions have consequence and we are beginning to see the results of what our Media has done. I have no doubt that America will prevail, but at what cost? That’s the scary part.

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“Republicans never win polls, they win elections,” – Rudy Giuliani

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No They Don't

IJB Friday, November 28th at 10:05AM EDT (link)

The Legacy Media will not change their playbook re: Obama. Probably not ever.

They will continue to cheerlead for him no matter what. They won’t make the same mistakes they made 10 years ago in helping to weaken Clinton.

If people want to find out what’s really going on in an Obama Admin., they’re going to have to read the blogs and listen to talk radio – the Legacy Media will not report the truth now anymore than they did during the campaign.

I think you are right so far.

Mord (Diary) Friday, November 28th at 11:11AM EDT (link)

Though almost immediatly after the election we did hear some questions about why the media was so biased. I won’t try and predict anything, but there may be some principled journalists out there who will ask some tough questions if Obama’s performance starts to be weak and floundering. They may be left-leaning but I don’t believe our media wants to see real harm come to America. Just because they prefer Democrat policy doesn’t mean they are suicidal.

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“Republicans never win polls, they win elections,” – Rudy Giuliani

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I don't believe it for a second...

jonnot Saturday, November 29th at 9:59AM EDT (link)

the MSM’s recent posturing and claims that perhaps they had gone a “liitle” overboard for BHO during the campaign was strictly for public relations and credibility purposes. What else could they have done? It was so obvious that nearly all of them were in the tank for BHO during the campaign. Don’t expect them to now suddenly become unbiased in their reporting–they will continue to nuance and edit the events of the day to favor their chosen one; even including outright falsehood. These India/Pakistan stories–or lack of them–are a perfect example of what we may expect to see from the newly enlightened MSM: no change at all.

Unfortunately...

Warner Todd Huston (Diary) Saturday, November 29th at 11:18PM EDT (link)

Unfortunately, I am forced to agree with you.

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Be sure and Visit my Home blog Publius’ Forum. It’s what’s happening NOW!

The media can't help themselves

Beaglescout (Diary) Sunday, November 30th at 3:22AM EDT (link)

They believe in destroying the presidency too much to keep on cheering “yes we can, si se puede” for four more years. Obama will do his best to keep them on his side but the media’s all-out campaigning for Obama is over. Now he needs to deliver all the steaming hot social- and economic-justice they were campaigning for.

“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”

–Alexander Hamilton

Study at Redstate University

They will not suddenly become critics, like they did with Carter, but

Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Sunday, November 30th at 11:29AM EDT (link)

The MSM will not suddenly become critics, like they did with Carter, but, they will slowly turn on him due to how he reacts to any semi-tough question, as revealed here:

Now, when I watched it, I didn’t think it was Ed Henry. I mean, I looked at it, and I thought I’d never seen this reporter before. But my transcriber guys say that it was Ed Henry. If it’s Ed Henry, he’s finished at Obama press conferences. If it was Ed Henry, he’s grown a lot of hair, and they tell me it was Ed Henry, but I never saw him identified on TV. I never thought I saw this guy before. Let’s go right to the sound bites here.

This is the question that got Obama all testy.

HENRY: Sir, you talked about John McCain was going to come back to Washington if he won and would just move people into different chairs. We got Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, Bob Gates –

OBAMA: Wait, wait, wait! Hold on! Ho’don! Wait a minute! Hold it. You hear that? First of all, that’s not the topic. We’re not talking about my cabinet because I haven’t made those appointments yet.

HENRY: We’re talking about Paul Volcker. He’s been around a long time, so he’s somebody who knows the ways of Washington. But what do you say, you know, to your supporters who were looking for change?

OBAMA: Actually Paul Volcker hasn’t been in Washington for quite some time. Uhhh, and that’s part of the reason he can provide a fresh perspective. Austan Goolsbee, uh, from my understanding, you’ve never worked in Washington.

GOOLSBEE: Been on vacation.

OBAMA: This is about as fresh a face as you can get.

RUSH: So you see, that’s not the topic, you can’t ask me about that. That’s not the topic. This isn’t Open Line Friday. This is not the Rush Limbaugh show where you get to ask the host anything you want. You’re going to stay on topic or you’re never going to get back in here wait, wait, wait, wait, wait hold on hold on hold on hold on wait, wait, wait, you hear that? See, he was looking for sympathy from others in the press corps. You hear that? You hear his question? You hear how unfair this is? First of all, that’s not the topic; we’re not talking about the cabinet. So Volcker, who is 81 years old, is now a fresh face. Volcker looks like a bald eagle. Nothing wrong with looking like a bald eagle, except when you’re not a bald eagle. He was standing there. He sent Volcker and Goolsbee out there to have their hands in their pockets for about five or ten minutes before The Messiah walked out from behind the curtain or behind the stage. They are clearly props. In the next sound bite, Obama rehashes his last two days of press conferences.

OBAMA: With respect to the details of the economic plan, as I’ve said before, we are going to be working over the next several months to put those details together. I’ve just described for you the framework within which we are going to put that, uh, that legislation forward. We’re going to have a strong stimulus, uh, a (sic) economic recovery plan that is designed to put people back to work. That’s priority number one. It is going to be large enough to jump-start the economy. That was what I talked about on Monday.

RUSH: Now, a couple observations. Look, I’m not trying to nitpick, but I need to set this up because of the bite that’s coming next. This sound bite and throughout this whole press conference, other than when he lost his cool with whoever this reporter was, “That’s not the topic! Not the topic! We’re not talking about my cabinet.”

And eventually he did go — let me see if we have that bite. Yeah, I think we’ve got the bite. I just got this and I haven’t had a chance to read the transcript, but he did go on and answer the question, and it was lame. It was a lame answer. He said, “How can you expect me to have new faces? I mean all these people are from the last Democrat administration, that happens to be the Clinton administration. I have to get people in here who know what they’re doing.” So he really fumbled the answer, and I’m being told it is Ed Henry. Ed went in there in a disguise, I guarantee you, because he wants to be let back in.

And then there is the vision arrogance he fell into when backed into a corner, which I will post hereat TMR.

If you have a subscription to Rush 24/7, you can read and listen to the whole thing here.

Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com and Charlotte Observer columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson