Should I be outraged that Obama did not attend the rally in Paris?

[Cali_Democrat]

Fox News is outraged
CNN is outraged
Right wingers are outraged

We've even got some people here voicing their "concern" over Obama's absence from the rally in Paris.

So should I be outraged?

I do know this....if Obama did attend the rally he would be attacked for making it all about him.

Damned if you do...damned if you don't.

Well....I'm outraged!!

Thanks, Obama.

[blm]

1. The RIGHT thing to do is NOT make this about US, no matter what RW egotists say.

Obama and Kerry have worked deliberately the last 2 years to get other nations' governments and Muslim spiritual leaders to act strongly against the rise of radicalism because THEY are the ones who have the most at stake.

It is about time we have leaders in this nation who don't feel the need to stroke their own egos with obnoxious bellicosity and acts of war.

[YvonneCa]

18. Exactly. Time for others to be seen...

...standing up. Obama and Kerry have worked relentlessly to support this. They didn't need to steal the spotlight.

[Cha]

30. Absolutely agree.. besides we have a fine Rep with AG Holder.. Tweet pic with FIM Cazeneuve..

TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary
Follow
French Interior Minister Cazeneuve welcomes AG Eric Holder to Paris where he is taking part in today's unity march.
4:41 AM - 11 Jan 2015 61 Retweets 32 favorites

http://theobamadiary.com/2015/01/11/early-bird-rise-and-shine-12/

[kelliekat44]

36. Did anyone from FOX "News" attend? nt

[abelenkpe]

2. Anyone else have outrage fatigue?

Had to stop watching news. Outrage is all they sell.

[SteveG]

3. I doubt the Secret Service would have been happy

The security logistics for having Obama take part would have been nightmarish to say the least plus his presence would have seriously increased the security risk for all of the other world leaders present.

[oberliner]

5. I would think Netanyahu's presence would be the bigger security risk

Especially given the circumstances.

[KittyWampus]

22. considering the war crimes perpetrated by Israel, Netanyahu has no choice

he is desperate for positive public relations.

[oberliner]

23. And also considering the attack on the kosher grocery

That is part of it as well.

[Behind the Aegis]

56. Especially given WHY the kosher grocery was supposedly attacked.

[bahrbearian]

33. Thats a good reason for Obama not the go there.

Bebe wants the stage let him have it , he hasn't done Obama any favors.

[AngryAmish]

6. nail, head yada...

There were millions there. If anyone assassinates our President we are going to war and a lot of people will die. The crowd can't be made secure. Send Joe and be done with it.

[BeyondGeography]

4. America is the most bored country on earth

[Paladin]

7. Save your outrage for something worthwhile. (nt)

[Bjorn Against]

8. I doubt the people of Paris would have even wanted him to attend

The reason I don't think they would want him to attend is nothing against him personally, but I suspect they would not like the increased security a Presidential visit would bring. They have already been dealing with increased security to protect their own people over the past week, I doubt they want to deal with even tighter security to protect someone who to them is a foreign leader. They may respect Obama as a foreign leader, but that does not mean that they want him speaking at rallies in their country when doing so would bring major security issues.

[mcar]

9. No

N/t

[malaise]

10. There is no way the logistics could have been worked out in such a short

time. Glad he stayed home - many in that crowd are suspect anyway.

[bahrbearian]

34. Is this the Crowd you call suspect? Becasue I do.

[smirkymonkey]

11. Wait, I thought the right wing and mainstream

media hated the French. Now they are outraged at Obama for not showing up? Wouldn't he be accused of being a left-wing, multi-cultural sympathizer or something like that?

[Warpy]

12. Pox News will do it for you

It would have been nice if some official or other had attended, but this came together too quickly for that sort of thing. They'll clear calendars for deaths of heads of state but everything else pretty much has to be scheduled.

The far right will whine about it, of course, they never miss an opportunity even though they're in the front lines attacking the first amendment here.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. It depends.

Do you have any other hot issues to be enraged at him about?

If not, then I guess this will have to do.

[EndElectoral]

14. Hate FOX, but he should have been there.

[Vinca]

15. Obama is the biggest target on the planet and I'm glad he wasn't there.

I'm afraid he wouldn't have been able to have adequate protection. The march was important, but only symbolic. It's what happens when everyone leaves the streets that matters.

[Politicalboi]

16. The GOP wants to put him in harms way

And besides, I thought the GOP was limiting Obama on his use of Air Force One. Was there enough gas money in the till to do this?

[Sissyk]

17. No, don't be outraged.

FOX and rightwingers are always outraged over something. It's in their DNA.

You, you're fine!

[TheCowsCameHome]

19. No, you should not.

Fox would be whining no matter what he did.

Fuck them. x 2.

[TexasProgresive]

20. I'm outraged that they didn't send Cheney

in a parka

[underpants]

58. Auschwitz, right?

I was going to post that yesterday but forgot.

[TexasProgresive]

61. You're right.

I was thinking it was a state funeral, but my search of Cheney in a parka came up Auschwitz.

[JI7]

21. these are people who think the United States is the center of the world

[DawgHouse]

70. +1 nt

[JI7]

24. we should ask the media whores why they aren't giving as much attention

To what happened in Nigeria.

[a la izquierda]

32. Or, I'm sorry, but to the continuing disgrace that is happening in Mexico.

Last edited Sun Jan 11, 2015, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Nobody in the media seems to give a fuck about that, nor did the disappearance of the 43 student-teachers come up in President Obama's recent meeting with Mexican President Peña-Nieto.

[kelliekat44]

37. Thank you! nt

[Enrique]

38. absolutely

if there was a political angle to that story, imagine the righteous outrage about that atrocity. But since there isn't such an angle, then nothing. From the political class, I mean. There were demonstrations in DC and other cities at the time of the WH visit, but they were totally ignored.

[JDPriestly]

54. Thanks. I cannot understand the silence on the mess in Mexico. It's almost criminal

that Americans are being kept in the dark about it.

Something is very wrong about that silence.

[spanone]

25. no. the fact that those outlets are outraged is a good reason you shouldn't be.

[onecaliberal]

26. For fucks sake...

Is there anything the idiots on faux can't make about hating POTUS. It's exhausting, and so preschool.

[MADem]

27. FOX News is outraged????? Weren't they the ones who coined the FREEDOM FRIES

term and gleefully repeated the "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" theme, over and over again?

Gee, now, all of a sudden, they're loving on those people who (they conveniently forgot) paid for our coup? Took 'em long enough--everyone else has liked them since 1776 or thereabouts...

[Cha]

28. Tweet pic.. AG Holder with French Interior Minister Cazeneuve.. Eric Holder is a fine Rep, Cali

TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary
Follow
French Interior Minister Cazeneuve welcomes AG Eric Holder to Paris where he is taking part in today's unity march.
4:41 AM - 11 Jan 2015 61 Retweets 32 favorites

http://theobamadiary.com/2015/01/11/early-bird-rise-and-shine-12/

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. The reports say Holder didn't take part in the march

Attorney General Eric Holder was not at the rally but was in Paris this weekend to attend a security summit on combating terrorism. He recorded interviews that aired in the U.S. on Sunday.

Ambassador to France Jane Hartley represented the United States at the rally. She tweeted several images of the crowd.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/11/world/charlie-hebdo-paris-march/

It does seem odd to go there for the day, but not join the march. Over-protective US Secret Service rules, perhaps?

[alarimer]

64. Neither did any of the other leaders.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/01/paris-a-photo-op-for-the-hypocrits.html

See the second photo at the link.

[muriel_volestrangler]

67. That link shows and names Merkel, Abbas, and Netanyahu

and also shows Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (Mali), Donald Tusk (European Council president, from Poland), and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, so I'm not sure what your point was meant to be.

A wider shot also shows Cameron from the UK: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/11/paris-world-leaders-solidarity-rally-terror-attacks

The point is, those leaders did march: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30769682

MSNBC says it was from doing too many US Sunday morning chat shows:

As world leaders and millions of French marchers gathered for what became France’s largest rally in the country’s history following a series of terror attacks in the capital, some in the United States criticized the Obama administration and members of Congress for their absence at the massive event.

More that 70 foreign delegates were slated to attend the Unity rally in Paris, including 44 heads of state, according to French station BFM. Leaders from UK, Germany, Jordan, Israel, and Palestinian authority marched with arms locked at the event along with defense ministers in a crowd of millions. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was set to represent the U.S., was nowhere to be seen.

Leaders from around the world Sunday joined hundreds of thousands of marchers in Paris for a rally in a show of solidarity.
The White House quickly put out a statement that Holder’s schedule, which included interviews with four of America’s five major Sunday news shows, did not allow him to participate. The whereabouts of President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry were also questioned.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/no-senior-white-house-official-paris-unity-rally

[Turbineguy]

29. If the wingnuts are outraged

you know for certain you do not have to be.

If he were there, the wingnuts would be outraged that he's supporting a bunch of surrender monkeys.

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. no

[Hekate]

39. It's OK that POTUS wasn't there, but I felt like it was a blunder that he didn't send someone ...

...of stature. Just off the top of my head: Secretary of State Kerry, former Secretary of State Clinton, former President Clinton, Vice President Biden. Why wasn't one of them there?

But outraged? Hardly.

[oldandhappy]

40. you do not need to be outraged

FN is mind pollution. Please save your own sanity by ducking their insanity.

[Enrique]

41. no, in fact you are not allowed to be outraged

or even not to like it.

I'm referring to the DUer who thought Holder should have gone to the rally. An opinion that someone alerted on and which the jury voted to hide.

[m-lekktor]

44. wow.

what in hell rule was broken on that one? what a fucked up jury.

[summerschild]

42. We should have sent Cheney and Bush.

With any luck, somebody would have arrested them for war crimes.

[freshwest]

43. If Obama had attended, Faux would demand we nuke Paris immediately to clear out ALL the Muslims...

Since they say Obama is their leader.

Honestly, though, why didn't they call for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, McCain. Palin, Bachmann, Graham, Cruz, North, Kristol, Christie, Perry, Paul or the rest of their highly touted 'better than Obama' crew to go?

Who did I leave off the list?

And where was Putin when the French needed him?



Few people had heard of Vladimir Putin when Russia's then-President Boris Yeltsin appointed him prime minister in 1999. But the stern-faced former KGB officer triggered a love affair with the Russian population — by starting a popular second war in Chechnya later that year.

Soon after hostilities began, the man who later became president surprised the country with the first of what became known as "Putinisms." He issued a threat to Chechen rebels using slang terms usually heard only in Russia's notoriously tough prisons.

"If they're in the airport," Putin said, "we'll kill them there... and excuse me, but if we find them in the toilet, we'll exterminate them in their outhouses."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90083829

Doesn't that just warm your heart? Faux wants him in the White House. Whatever...

[NaturalHigh]

45. I'm not outraged. It never occurred to me that he would attend.

How much sense does it make to put the President of the United States in a place where he would make the perfect target for a terrorist? I don't even understand why people think he should go there.

[AwakeAtLast]

68. That is exactly what I was thinking

The security issues alone would have hindered the march, which he would have been criticized for. Circular firing squad anyone?

[Cha]

46. Tweet.."Fuck @CNN! The President's safety comes before your stupid BS. Get lost"

Rita A @ritaag
· 6h 6 hours ago
Fuck @CNN! The President's safety comes before your stupid BS. Get lost

Rita A @ritaag
Follow
former US Secret Service agent jst said on MSNBC that
Secret Service wld nvr allow POTUS to attend an unplanned march in a foreign country
8:46 AM - 11 Jan 2015 105 Retweets 41 favorites


François Picard ✔ @FrancoisF24
Follow
"I'm marching but I'm conscious of the confusion and hypocrisy of the situation."
6:11 AM - 11 Jan 2015 3,899 Retweets 2,111 favorites

http://theobamadiary.com/2015/01/11/chat-on-68/

[alp227]

47. No, because the media is emotionally manipulating its viewers.

Lots of thoughtful posts evaluating the situation for Obama, in this thread

[glasshouses]

48. CNN ,FOX and every other U.S news outlet knows

what it takes to move the President of the United States and the security concerns involved .
It does not compare to any other leader in the world.

The SS arrives weeks in advance and plan , route , re route then plan it all over again.

I can guarantee you that the SS in charge of protecting the President STRONGLY advised against
a march in Paris with a couple of days to prepare for it.

[onenote]

66. I'm not outraged, but Presidents do attend events with less than weeks of advance work

That's not a valid excuse and you should stop relying on it.

Various presidents have made overseas trips on very short notice. Clinton attending Rabin's funeral less than two days after Rabin was assassinated is just one example. Bush and Obama have also made overseas trips with little advance work.

Again, I'm not outraged that he didn't attend. But the WH should have anticipated that this would be a story.

[cwydro]

49. I don't think he had any reason

to be there.

So, no.

[Blue_In_AK]

50. No.

And from what I've seen, there are some serious hypocrites among the dignitaries attending.

[cwydro]

51. No. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

52. And no disrespect to the dead,

and not intending to minimize this horrific event, but people are getting slaughtered, sometimes in almost unfathomable numbers, all over the world every day. A fair amount of slaughtering of innocents has been done in our own name over the past few decades. What makes this case different?

[JDPriestly]

53. OK. I'm going to regretfully differ from all of you good folks.

I think Obama should have attended.

It seems like it is the sort of event that Obama would have wanted to attend.

But he is preparing for his State of the Union speech and maybe that is more important.

Maybe he did not want to be overly tired.

I think it is odd that he did not go.

[Behind the Aegis]

55. I recognize the irony.

But your 'outrage' should be reserved for Eric Holder for being in France and not attending the rally and "white hot rage" for Netanyahu for attending the rally. I guess this is sarcasm, except I have seen it. You can find threads for both "outrages." Wanna guess which one produced MORE threads?

[JonLP24]

57. You just highlighted how the media makes a difference

I don't have cable per se (now box or dish), just access to certain packages (HBO, NBA League Pass. so I never watch CNN, Fox, or televised news anymore except for Frontline on PBS time-to-time or happen to access local programing when the local news is on.

My access to news is DU, searches, links, headlines, etc. See, I have no idea that anyone is outraged, I'm frankly surprised a detail such as not being at rally is being widely reported. I had no idea he was or wasn't at a rally, something like that never even concerned me to even think about. Of all the things going on all over, why would I or anyone focus on that?

I have a feeling most of us are the same way and I doubt there is any real outrage, maybe a few people over at France would have liked to have his presence which they felt was important but I doubt they are outraged, but when you access the 24/7 news -- news that they treat are important, debates on the right or wrong thing on the given issue, and also if not more important, what they are not airing.

You know about it but you can't notice it when you don't watch the 24/7 news, it is amazing when concerns & narratives are coming out of the blue then I start checking it out -- 24/7 news was the source.

[fredamae]

59. I'm Not outraged. We have

and are demonstrating our support to France and her citizens. We had people there. We may not have even seen them all because..............MSM.
Those ignorant complaining bastids can all STFU, imo.

[Historic NY]

60. Canada sent their public safety minister..

it was a crime. Did the leaders of countries come to NY after 9/11?

[egduj]

62. No.

[alarimer]

63. No. It was a fake photo op.

Those "leaders" were not leading the march, but on a closed off street.

[spinbaby]

65. Dutifully repeated by Stephanopoulos

On the morning show.

[roody]

69. No, I didn't go either.

[abakan]

71. No! We don't have time for faux outrage.