PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago - President Obama made the first move to greet Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, but it was the acerbic and anti-American leader who beat Obama to the punch on the World Wide Web.
In a clear indication Chavez sought to leverage his brief encounter with Obama at the opening ceremonies of the fifth Summit of the Americas here, Chavez's government Web site almost immediately posted a photo of the two leaders and a government-approved commentary in Spanish that read as follows:
"Before the Inaugural session of the 5th Summit of the Americas, the President of the United States approached President Chavez to greet him. They both drew their hands in a historic handshake after many years of tension under the Bush administration, when relations between Washington and Caracas had deteriorated. President Chavez expressed to Obama his desire for changes in the relations between the two countries. Eight years ago I greeted President Bush with this same hand. I'd like to be your friend."
First of all, why in the world in Obama making the first move to greeting a dictator like their best buddies? The pictures that I've seen show Obama smiling like a Cheshire cat while they were shaking hands. At least, he didn't kiss Chavez's ring. He didn't even treat British PM Gordon Brown that well.
It makes our Appeaser-in-Chief look weak to meet men like Chavez in the manner he did. There were no preconditions, and the One approached him. This isn't the equivilant of a JFK/Vienna moment, but it's close. Let's hope that he isn't such a pushover behind the scenes, but I doubt it.
"I'd like to be your friend."-Chavez.
If being Chavez's "friend" means becoming a socialist and isolationist country, then, thanks, but no thanks. That is the only way that he will accept the US as not an "evil empire". Being socialist and isolationist is not what made this country great.
After all, he made it clear when he was quoted saying:
"I hope President Obama is the last president of the Yankee Empire, and the first president of a truly democratic republic, the United States."
In Chavez's mind more "democratic" means more socialist. That is out of the question. Socialism is ruining Venezuela. We don't need our country ruined like yours.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/17/obama-chavez-shake-hands-summit-americas/
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