Editorial “Obama’s snub of Thatcher funeral” features a bold insert “Others suggest Obama despises everything Thatcher stood for – ‘free men and free markets’ – in favor of socialism.”
WATCHDOG: This does not do credit to an editorial that otherwise responsibly represents a conservative point of view that President Barack Obama should have sent a higher ranking delegation to the funeral services of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
The editor(s) notes that the funeral came at a critical point of the gun-control debate which prevented Vice President Joe Biden from attending.
It also acknowledges that contemporaries of Thatcher, former Secretary of States James Baker and George Schultz, were official representatives of the USA.
It points out that none of the surviving ex-U. S. leaders – Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – attended. But certainly they could have represented the USA had they so chosen and were probably asked. A likely reason for absenting themselves for the Republicans, father and son Bush, are current health issues.
The editorial then faults the Obama Administration for sending a higher ranking delegation to the funeral of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Two observations: Chavez was a sitting head of state, so there was protocol to follow. Secondly, from one who followed the career and was exposed briefly to the forceful and powerful Baker in action, no conservative in the country had a greater right to be our representative. (More on that subject under ‘memoirs’ someday.)
Obviously the aforementioned inflammatory insert was offered as raw meat for the New Era’s conservative readers. At the end, the article does pay tribute to President Obamas statement concerning Thatcher: “The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend.” To that we add ‘Amen.’
“Raw meat”, or…..’telling it, like it is”????
Wag of the tail to LNP (for a change!!)