Daily Archives: 15 August 2012

Pax Obama

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The Wall Street Journal‘s Monday op-ed likened Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s actions on the world stage—in particular vis-à-vis Syria—to a Samuel Beckett play.  After all, all the Syrians have to do is simply to hang in, and wait upon Obama’s convenience.

But the cost of that is enormous.  Aside from the 20,000 Syrian murders that have resulted from Obama’s dithering, aside from Iranian near-nuclear bomb achievement (to broaden the scope and result of his waffle), we’ve gone in these last three years from what was Pax Americana to a disastrous Pax Obama:

…thanks in part to Mr. Obama’s calculated abdication, Middle East tension and turmoil are rising.

And everywhere else in the world, especially including Europe and North America, if the Syrian butchery is allowed to continue apace and Iran is allowed to get nuclear weapons.

Paul Ryan and the European Press

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Spiegel Online International occasionally summarizes the views of other European (mostly German) newspapers on the subjects of the time.  Monday’s edition brought these remarks about the Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Congressman Paul Ryan (R, WI).

From Süddeutsche Zeitung:

…Ryan fits in almost absurdly well with the caricature of Romney the Democrats have been painting for weeks now — namely that he is a cold, money-grubbing multimillionaire and would have to transfer nary a cent to Washington in taxes if his pupil Ryan actually got the opportunity to implement his radical fiscal concepts.

From Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

[Ryan’s] ability to attract swing voters is likely to be limited. Although they may be dissatisfied with the current situation, it is unlikely that a radical restructuring of the social system will warm their hearts….

From Handelsblatt:

The choice of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential candidate is…an act of desperation.

And so on.

As I wrote a while ago about Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, if the liberal European press doesn’t like Ryan, he must be pretty good.