"0tterbot" wrote in message
Charlie wrote in message

What? He's sucking up to the new big money since our economy is going
down the shitter? What a louse. :-)

no, i meant that sincerely!! i am very impressed. it's not many p-m.s who
can or would tell the chinese (in mandarin) that they have a few human
rights issues!

I agree that seeing him talking directly to the Chinese was very impressive.
I dont think too many world leaders would have the range of languages that
he does. But I do think they have to get off their arses and start doing
something.

Since they've taken over the role as the Government, they've probably only
sat for about 4 weeks. Not enough to do a bloody thing of use, yet.


You're right. I am not sure about obama, as far as his policies are
concerned, but, damn, the boy has charisma and is fast on his feet.

The trouble with 'charismatic' leaders is that the instant people see
through the 'charisma', they drop like a ton of lead. I'm not yet convinced
that Obama has anything of substance. Hillary does, but she certainly has
baggage.

*If* things were to go as he portarys, perhaps you all would love us
again. But one must always ask, who really controls the show?

i also think yanks have an over-inflated idea of how much they were ever
loved in the first instance g

:-)) It does tend to come as a surprise to many Americans that they aren't
universally loved, but I do think that Charlie might be an exception to that
grouping as he seems to have made an effort to look beyond his borders.

It's not so difficult to understand such a mind set if you think of us
having 300 million people on our continent - imagine trying to keep up with
current affairs within the nation in that circumstance, let alone trying to
know what is going on in the rest of the world. Add to that being the most
powerful nation on earth and it must be a bit of a heady mix.

I've always thought that we were extraordinarily lucky to be where we are
and what we are. We're a piddling little, unimportant nation stuck at what
other nations see as being the bottom of the world, but that works to our
benefit. We take in news and media from all sorts of nations and because we
all feel that we are isolated, we travel, and for our size, we travel a lot.