Australian Prime Minister slams Obama

[Reaganfan]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/11/australia.obama.ap/index.html

[Verily]

The Coalition is going to lose reelection badly later this year. What John Howard says hardly matters.

[So the Heroes Fall]

I'm sure so many Americans actually care what Howard says.

[Sibboleth]

John Howard is a racist who used race-baiting to get himself re-elected a few years ago.

The Coalition is going to lose reelection badly later this year. What John Howard says hardly matters.

Be careful; the buggers always bounce back just before polling day. Hopefully this will be fourth time unlucky but...

[skybridge]

Foreign opinion so matters in American elections...

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

Well if Howard hates Obama then my opinion of Obama has gone up quite a bit..

[Michael Z]

For now ignoring the fact that Howard is not exactly someone whose opinion I value, if this thread illustrates anything it's that Obama has conservatives running so scared they're willing to use ANY excuse to start anti-Obama threads like this one. Seriously, we've had the Biden thing, we've had the race thing, the smoking thing, but nothing really substantial, just a bunch of slurs and personal attacks, his detractors lashing out wildly in the vain hope that anything will stick.

Coming up next! The Estonian Minister for Agriculture thinks Obama has a funny name.

[JSojourner]

Howard is risking the lives and limbs of how many Australian troops in Iraq? And that compares with our sacrifice?

If he believes in the mission so much, let Australia take over the whole damn shooting match.  (We'll cheerfully replace their peacekeepers in East Timor with a few hundred Marines.)

Otherwise, Howard can shut his pie-hole.

[Rob]

Republicans have scorned world opinion and insulted our allies for the entire Bush Presidency... and now that they've found a foreign leader crazy enough to support them, they're shouting it from the rooftops. Pathetic.

[Michael Z]

Republicans have scorned world opinion and insulted our allies for the entire Bush Presidency... and now that they've found a foreign leader crazy enough to support them, they're shouting it from the rooftops. Pathetic.

Very true. But then Republicans don't want allies, they want lapdogs.

[Sibboleth]

Republicans have scorned world opinion and insulted our allies for the entire Bush Presidency... and now that they've found a foreign leader crazy enough to support them, they're shouting it from the rooftops. Pathetic.

Howard isn't crazy. He's a complete bastard and verges on being a fascist at times, but he's not crazy.

[TheresNoMoney]

Right-wingers around the world are terrified of an Obama candidacy!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

What an ass. Osama most likely prefers the Republicans to be in charge - Iraq has been a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, but the Democrats are too civil to mention this.

[TheresNoMoney]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

[JSojourner]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, at least Bush sent a real quantity of cannon fodder into Iraq to die for his lies. Howard is a total joke.

[Reaganfan]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, at least Bush sent a real quantity of cannon fodder into Iraq to die for his lies. Howard is a total joke.

Lies? You're crazy.

[So the Heroes Fall]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, at least Bush sent a real quantity of cannon fodder into Iraq to die for his lies. Howard is a total joke.

Lies? You're crazy.

LOL

[Deano963]

Personally, I just found it amazing when I first read this story earlier today that the Prime Minister of Australia would go so out of his way to say such things about Barack Obama in particular and Democrats in general. What an ass. He sounded like he is the twin of Dick Cheney reading his asinine comments. Just the fact that a foreign leader would involve himself in our internal debate over the Iraq War and go after Obama in particular, when most politicians and the vast majority of Americans probably agree with Obama's position.

Why did he just go after Obama when so many other politicians share his same goal and put forth similar legislation to Obama's? The whole story just struck me as odd......and disgusting of course, given how incredibly stupid Howard's words were.

I mean, can anyone here imagine the President of the United States criticizing some obscure foreign politician (say a member of Parliamnet in Britain) who is not the head of state - let alone criticizing that politician's entire party?!

Regardless of how one feels about Iraq or Obama, this was a very inappropriate action on Howard's part, IMO.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Lies? You're crazy.

Bush has a 72% disapproval rating on Iraq for a reason.

[Yates]

Say goodbye to your political career, Mr. Obama.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, at least Bush sent a real quantity of cannon fodder into Iraq to die for his lies. Howard is a total joke.

Lies? You're crazy.

Hilarious, Naso, Purely Hilarious.

It's probably crazier now to think they didn't lie - To quote then Sec. of State Colin Powell in Feb 2001:

"He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours"

[Secretary Polnut]

PM Howard is such a supporter of the Iraq War that he has sent a whopping 1,400 Australian troops to help the US! What a hero! What a hypocrite!

I will say... for the size of our military that's a lot.

I mean, can anyone here imagine the President of the United States criticizing some obscure foreign politician (say a member of Parliamnet in Britain) who is not the head of state - let alone criticizing that politician's entire party?!

The president did publicy warn against Australia voting for Labor at the last election - as they wanted to withdraw from Iraq.

This is really surprising to me, Howard is usually so astute in his public comments. Howard should get grilled at question time.

[Deano963]

I mean, can anyone here imagine the President of the United States criticizing some obscure foreign politician (say a member of Parliamnet in Britain) who is not the head of state - let alone criticizing that politician's entire party?!

The president did publicy warn against Australia voting for Labor at the last election - as they wanted to withdraw from Iraq.

Really? I never heard of that happening. It's not surprising though. Well, obviously I don't think Bush has any place telling a foreign country's people who to elect or even who he thinks they should elect any more than I think Howard does. Hopefully you guys throw Howard out this year.

[Secretary Polnut]

Well I am in Canberra and went to question time.

The Opposition leader did not let up on Howard and moved a censure motion on the PM.

Labor is WAY ahead in the polls ATM, but history had shown that in both cases of the 2001 and 2004 election, the coaltion was way down early in the year, but they always seemed to manage to crawl back.

I'm happy, but it's too far out to get excited about.