“This is a person who is one of the most anti-American leaders in the entire world. He is a brutal dictator, human rights violations are very, very prevalent in Venezuela. And you have to be careful. When you’re talking about the prestige of the United States and the presidency of the United States, you have to be careful who you’re seeing joking around with. And I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez.” – John Ensign, Nevada Senator, as reported by Politico.com
Hold on a second there, Senator. When you say “brutal dictator,” I think you mean the foreign leader who some officials have some very notable concerns about in regards to his commitment to freedom of the press and other essentials of a free society, but who otherwise is the democratically elected President of Venezuela. I would not characterize Chavez as strictly “anti-American,” but he was certainly “anti-Bush,” particularly in the area of foreign policy. And can you really chastise President Obama for shaking the hand of Chavez and smiling for the camera when the former President had a particularly puzzling and well-documented first-term bro-mance (God forgive me) with a foreign leader that is as bad (and probably worse) than Chavez (Last name Putin, first name Vladimir)?
I rest my case.
American leaders have had a history of dealing with anti-free speech, anti-human rights dictators, so long as they’re right wing dictators. Can’t have any US leaders consorting with…socialists.
Great point. I completely forgot about the ‘bromance’ between Bush and Vlad. “I looked into his eyes and saw his soul”. Another blatant example of hypocrisy.
“Better dead than red!”