Chavez: Obama is more intelligent than Bush!

[SuperTrouper]

Freeper heads are exploding!!! :rofl:

EXCERPTS:

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – President Barack Obama extended a hand to America's hemispheric neighbors on Saturday at a summit where he offered a new beginning for U.S.-Cuba relations and accepted a book about the exploitation of Latin America from Venezuela's fiery, anti-American leader.

At the Summit of the Americas in the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Obama signaled he was ready to accept Cuban President Raul Castro's proposal of talks on issues once off-limits for Cuba, including the scores of political prisoners held by the communist government. Obama exchanged handshakes and pats on the back with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who once likened President George W. Bush to the devil.

Chavez gave him a copy of "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," a book by Eduardo Galeano, which chronicles U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region.

Later, when a reporter asked Obama what he thought of the book, the president replied: "I thought it was one of Chavez' books. I was going to give him one of mine."

Their exchange on the first full day of meetings at the summit followed a brief grip and grin for cameras that the two leaders had on Friday night when Obama greeted him in Spanish.

"I think it was a good moment," Chavez said about their initial encounter. "I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president."


He also extended a hand to a leader Ronald Reagan spent years trying to drive from power: Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. The Sandinista president stepped up and introduced himself, U.S. officials reported.

Yet soon after, Ortega, who was ousted in 1990 elections that ended Nicaragua's civil war but who was returned to power by voters in 2006, delivered a blistering 50-minute speech that denounced capitalism and U.S. imperialism as the root of much hemispheric mischief. The address even recalled the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, though Ortega said the new U.S. president could not be held to account for that.

"I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Obama said, to laughter and applause from the other leaders.

But perhaps the biggest applause line was his call for a fresh start in relations between Washington and Havana.

"I know there's a longer journey that must be traveled to overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day," he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cb_obama_summit

[NYCGirl]

1. Well, duh. NT

[I Have A Dream]

2. My thoughts *EXACTLY*!!!

:rofl:

[bitchkitty]

3. Damn, Presidente, why did you qualify it?

Anyone, I mean anyone, is smarter than Bush.

That said, I'm so glad that Obama is a civilized person who listens and engages people rather than offend them.

[EFerrari]

28. They have irony in Latin America, too, you know.

;-)

[mmonk]

4. Yep. No brainer.

[Kahuna]

5. And not a hint of a whiff of sulfer!

:D

[liberalmuse]

6. I beg to differ.

In my experience with Freepers, they seem to dislike and be wary of any display of intelligence, 'You think too much'. 'You're trying to be too logical'.

[WCGreen]

7. One is in the top ten percentile...

The other, not so much...

[LeftishBrit]

8. Chavez states the Obvious!

I mean, two short planks would have been more intelligent than Bush; and Obama has actually got a brain in his skull.

[Laelth]

9. That's not saying much. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[hobbit709]

10. Dead skunk in the middle of the road is more intelligent than bush.

[sarge43]

11. The skid marks around the dead skunk are more intelligent.

Compared to boosh my cockatiel Spazz is a freakin' genius.

[Adelante]

12. Jeez - right on top of things nt

[SKKY]

13. Well, at least Chavez has a firm grasp on the obvious...

...I've wondered at time.

[Buzz Clik]

14. My cat is more intelligent than Bush. But, my dog is not.

Our pet rat has better social skills than Bush -- he never bites, he shows affection at appropriate times, and he has analytical skills.

[spooky3]

15. well, that's damning with VERY faint praise!!!!

[Julius Civitatus]

16. I wanted to add... "Obama is also smarter than Chavez"

I know this may not garner me any friends around the many Chavez supporters in DU. I'm one of those that don't like him much and his militaristic posses. Sorry, that's just me.
:hide:

I know a proto-tyrant when I see one, and Chavez has done a lot of stupid and questionable things to make me wonder about his commitment to democracy.

To state also the obvious: Obama is way smarter than Chavez. I think Obama is going to charm and outmaneuver him and many other leaders in the Americas.

I'm counting down to the point when Chavez starts calling Obama "imperialistic", "evil", etc. You know that someone that thrives in demagoguery will resort to that as soon as he needs to. People like him need a "foreign evil" to rile up his base and stay in power. Funny, just like Bush did! I think Chavez and Bush were polar opposites of the same thing.

[Honeycombe8]

17. He spoke the obvious. But I don't give a flying f__k what Chavez thinks. nt

[struggle4progress]

18. Galeano's book is a classic: "The division of labor among nations is that some specialize

in winning and others in losing. Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of Indian civilizations ... For those who see history as a competition, Latin America's backwardness and poverty are merely the result of its failure. We lost; others won. But the winners happen to have won thanks to our losing: the history of Latin America's underdevelopment is, as someone has said, an integral part of the history of world capitalism's development. Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others -- the empires and native overseers. In the colonial and neocolonial alchemy, gold changes into scrap metal and food into poison"

[old mark]

19. My fucking CAT is more intelligent than Bush.

Better looking, too.

mark

[AtomicKitten]

23. my cat's poop is more intelligent than Bush

n/t

[old mark]

26. My cat's poop's STINK is more intelligent than Bush. nt

[AtomicKitten]

33. you win!

:rofl:

[old mark]

36. Poor George....all he ever wanted was to rule the world...

now people say mean things about him.....



mark

[Reterr]

20. Duh.eom

[Orsino]

21. Obama's wingtips are more intelligent than Bush. n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

22. Chavez: The sky is blue

[LWolf]

24. And, in other breaking news, water is wet. nt

[Downtown Hound]

25. That's not really saying much

Obama is brilliant, but saying you're smarter than Bush is like saying you're smarter than Jar Jar Binks.

[EFerrari]

27. I guess no one on this thread gets it but that was what we call

understatement. :)

Maybe a visual would have helped.



lol

[bitchkitty]

30. Oh! You posted a pic of my Rafael!

Sending my heart into a whirl! ;)

[EFerrari]

31. LOL!

:hi:

[PufPuf23]

29. Duh

Our past leaders made this difficult path with our natural friends and allies of the western hemisphere.

Obama is doing incrementally well in Venezuala and Cuba and Latin/South America and I smile with relief and happiness.

[HamdenRice]

32. Chavez: Bears shit in the woods. In other news, Chavez: Pope discovered to be Catholic nt

[scheming daemons]

38. Bush thought that bears were Catholic and that the Pope shits in the woods

[Peace_Sells]

34. adult

I'm so glad to have an adult as president. Someone respectful who understands diplomacy. The other day a teabagger tried to tell Obama was out there making us look stupid but I see the opposite. Maybe she was thinking of bush?

[Peacetrain]

35. Speaking of commenting on the obvious....nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

37. nice. obama has a great sense of humor too

"I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Obama said

[SuperTrouper]

39. And Pat Buchanan became unhinged about this in Hardball!!

[ecstatic]

40. And the sky is blue!

Series! :eyes: