As Obama arrives, Czechs fear appeasement and socialism.

[denem]

That Big Moment for Czechs? Not So Big

... Czech officials say they are privately praying that Klaus won’t lecture Mr. Obama on how to run the United States economy or offer him his latest book, “Blue Planet in Green Shackles,” which argues that the fight against global warming is a threat to freedom.

Even without the Czech political storm or the indomitable Mr. Klaus, however, the Obama mania evident across the Continent is tempered here. Czechs have looked with growing alarm at what many perceive as Mr. Obama’s forsaking of the free-market principles that this country ardently embraced after decades under Communism ...

Martin Kotas, 34, a bar owner and staunch supporter of Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, recalled that he had literally cried into his beer the night Mr. Obama was elected president. “We don’t want to be under the influence of Putin’s Russia and we don’t want socialism,” he said.

Mr. Kotas said he worried that Mr. Obama, after completing a review of American security policy, would abandon plans to install a missile-defense radar system in the Czech Republic. The proposed system has polarized Czech society, but many nevertheless view it as an essential bulwark against Russia.

“I am worried that people are projecting all of their hopes onto Obama, that they are hypnotized by him,” Mr. Kotas said. His overriding fear, he added, was that Mr. Obama would “lead the world on a path of appeasement.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/world/europe/04czech.html?_r=1

[fascisthunter]

1. so Czechs have a conservative corporate nut as well

these people are not ok in the head. Global warming is a real and dangerous problem all life on this planet has got to content with. No time for corporate corrupt reasoning...

[Thrill]

3. "in a nation where President Ronald Reagan remains the unrivaled hero of the Cold War"

All you need to know.

[Thrill]

2. Typical biased article. That only offers one side of a situation.

[denem]

4. It is a biased article,

but gives some background on how a man of the caliber of President Klaus managed his rise to power. Deep wounds and a man exploiting them to keep his 'forever war' alive.

[MadBadger]

5. Is he a corporatist or a socialist? He cant be both.

[ClarkUSA]

6. Czech leaders are bellicose fascists like the GOP. They use the same demonizing buzzwords.

I'm glad that President Obama is snubbing them and their insults for a nice dinner with Michelle in Prague tonight.
They'll have to make do with being phony assholes towards President Obama during tomorrow morning's breakfast
meeting.

[denem]

7. Not Czechs in general. Klaus is a demagogue ala Thatcher

with barely a hint of her intelligence.

[ClarkUSA]

8. That's why I said "Czech leaders"... Klaus and his top rival both fit my description.

Both will be at the breakfast meeting tomorrow. Most expatriate Czechs I know are terribly embarrassed by them.

[cyclezealot]

9. I thought the 'Bohemian ' people progressive?

Czechs fear Socialism. ?.A minority of Czech people voted in this clown. So, how do polls show his popularity.. ?..
But, the coalition of the left gained 51% of the vote in their last election.. So, who fears socialism.?. Maybe their nutjob prez. pretty much thought a nut by even his fellow EU conservatives.? In the end , we'll hope he does not reflect on the Bohemian peoples of the Czech Rep.
..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_Czech_Republic

[Thrill]

10. Yeah looks like they are really tempered

Pisses me off when writers find one critic and base the whole article on his opinion