According to Channel 4 news:
President Barack Obama made his debut at Friday night’s Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner in more ways than one.
Apparently the President got in a few jabs and zingers of his own on Friday night.
I suppose in this job, it is good to have thick skin. Is this more flattering or insulting than the previous presidential jib-jabs?
In the following video with Neil Cavuto of Fox News, John McCain (of Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran fame) admonishes President Obama for not being encouraging enough to the protestors in Iran. Congress has passed a resolution condemning violence against the protestors.
On the other hand, senior statemen like Henry Kissinger have come out praising President Obama and praising for his stance regarding Iran. Kissinger and like-minded others feel that the United States is in no position to be meddling in the affairs of other sovereign nations.
The Iran portion of the video goes from 00:00-5:10. (Then the topic changes to health care.)
Both the House and Senate Resolutions:
The House went first, voting 401-5 to adopt a measure (H Res 560) expressing “support for all Iranian citizens who struggle for freedom … condem[nation] of ongoing violence against demonstrators by the government of Iran … and affir[mation] of the universality of individual rights.”
The Senate later adopted by voice vote two measures (S Res 193; S Res 196) backing the protests and calling for free speech in Iran, respectively.
“The time has come for the United States Congress to speak out unequivocally in support of the fundamental right of the Iranian people to determine their future for themselves in freedom,” Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., in a joint statement. “With this resolution, the Senate joined with our colleagues in the House of Representatives to affirm our shared commitment to the universal values of democracy, human rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law, and to condemn the unacceptable violence against the peaceful demonstrators taking place in Iran.”
How do you feel? Should Obama have been more forceful from the beginning in defense of the protestors, especially with strong evidence that the democratic process had been tampered with?
Is Senator McCain right about the U.S. showing more support for the protesting Iranians? Should the President speak only about the civil rights issue of peaceful protest and the human rights issue of allowing protest without violence from the government?
