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Saturday, April 18, 2009
German Editor Agrees
Josef Joffe, editor of the German weekly Die Zeit, writes that President Obama’s popularity with European street mobs availed nothing in his diplomatic discussions with European leaders.
Quote:
The point here is an old one, variously ascribed to Talleyrand, Palmerston or De Gaulle, about nations having everlasting interests rather than eternal friends or enemies. In today’s language: [national] interest beats affection any time.
President Obama may not be a fool, but his worshipful political supporters were badly fooled by the messianic character of his campaign rhetoric promising a transcendent reordering of political and social life through the vapid vagueness of “hope” and “change.”
European leaders’ indifference to the President’s street popularity is a hopeful sign that the sovereignty and national interests of the United States are not subject to the street-mob demonstration pressures so dear to the hearts of liberal-progressive-socialists and anarchists, that the Constitution is not necessarily to be interpreted by mob opinion or by international or foreign law.
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