Heh.
News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan’s emperor have incensed critics here, who said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas. …
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“I don’t know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it’s not appropriate for an American president to bow […]

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Via Atrios, Media Matters serves up your daily slab o’ wingnuttery, in the form of Wesley Pruden’s column about Obama’s overseas sojourn:
He established a new precedent for how American presidents should pay obeisance to kings, emperors, monarchs, sovereigns and assorted other authentic man-made masters of the universe. He stopped just this side of the full grovel to the […]

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I see the bowing thing is driving right-wingers crazy. Good.
After eight years of a president who thought the world should bow down to him, we’ve actually got a president who realizes the importance of tact and displomacy and showing respect to our allies - instead of expecting them to fall in line and pronto because we […]

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Because he’s one of the few, if not the only, in either party with the cojones to write this:
Generations of conservatives followed the great advice of our Founding Fathers and pursued a restrained foreign policy that rebuffed entangling alliances and advised America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, not to “go abroad looking for […]

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Because hey, he didn’t say the actual word!
They do this on purpose, by the way. Most Fox News viewers will not have seen the actual speech in its entirety, and because Fox News is the only “fair and balanced” network to report the “truth,” they will come away with this notion that Obama talked to […]

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The conservative e-mail this morning is all about Obama showing weakness in the Middle East, his apologizing, his “humiliation.” But of course. They’ve been listening to the never-ending drumbeat on Fox News, where ambiguity must be a French word and anything less than overt threats is un-American.
From your less-partisan observers, the speech is getting pretty rave […]

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Drudge has this one linked with his own headline:
Obama: USA cannot impose its values on world
Being that it’s Druge, the insinuation being - how OUTRAGEOUS, of course the USA can (and must!) impose its values on the world! Regardless of cost, right?

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Re: Obama meeting Chavez and actually shaking his hand!!!!!, no one is better at the straight-faced takedown of Fox News talking points than Daniel Larison:
What is imperative and much more important than emphasizing U.S. weakness is manufacturing foreign threats, which Obama then supposedly “fails” to confront and overcome. Having cooked up the Venezuelan menace where […]

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One of the things that’s been sort of perplexing in the post-election environment is the question: What now?

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Daniel Larison, who’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite bloggers despite the fact (or perhaps because of it) that he’s an old-school type of conservative, has a remarkably thought-provoking post on how neoconservatism may look dead -but may be bound for a comeback.
Money quote:
Even so, you can guarantee that the alarmists who warned of new […]

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Gets it all, in 42 seconds
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Wingers. I suppose so long as you’ve got the AM radio turned full up and Fox News on, you never do have to look reality in the face.

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It was only a matter of time ’til we got around to this argument, of course, though I’m surprised to hear it from a neoconservative. Though Matt’s explanation sounds about right:
Indeed, they think that this kind of in-depth knowledge is actually harmful. They prefer the judgment of people who have little knowledge of the outside world but […]

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Whatever the country’s shortcomings, can someone please tell me why John McCain is also trying to pick a fight with Russia?

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Maureen Dowd has an amusing take on Obama’s sojourn:
The media behemoth slouching after the senator is scouring his every word, expression, bead of sweat, basketball shot and accessory — are those hiking boots too Bremer? Are the sunglasses too rapper? …
The One, as McCain aides sardonically call Obama, glided through Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, girding […]

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Not Barack Obama, says Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek - but John McCain:
The rap on Barack Obama, at least in the realm of foreign policy, has been that he is a softheaded idealist who thinks that he can charm America’s enemies. John McCain and his campaign, conservative columnists and right-wing bloggers all paint a picture of […]

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Tom Friedman doesn’t get it. Glenn Greenwald does:
If there were a powerful nation (besides the U.S.) that had a leading foreign policy analyst unapologetically justifying the brutal destruction of another country by explaining that its citizens needed to “Suck On This,” and had a leading presidential candidate who sung songs about dropping bombs on the […]

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Glenn Greenwald lists the essentials:
(1) Any government or group that takes money from and is allied with the U.S. is inherently good. Anything they do — including invasions, wars and other acts of violence — is just and “bold.”
(2) Any government or group that opposes the U.S. is inherently bad and anything they do is […]

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Wonks only, below the break.

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