Does Obama hate Britain?

[cowcommander]

The brits seem to think so, what do you think? Read this article.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100071241/barack-obama-france-is-americas-strongest-ally-the-president-gives-britain-the-boot-again/

[marmar]

1. “We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy, and the French people.”

I think perhaps they're reading too much into the statement. And why would we have a stronger relationship with Britain than say Canada or France? Seems like a lot of whining, honestly.

[MissHoneychurch]

4. There is still a rivalry going on

between France and Britain. And we know the Britons enjoy holding a grudge. I guess that is what triggered the article and the whining.

[cowcommander]

5. The whining is even worse in the Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1346006/Barack-Obama-declares-France-biggest-ally-blow-Special-Relationship-Britain.html

[LeftishBrit]

41. The Daily Mail are scum, and they hate post-1950s Britain

[Honeycombe8]

45. Yes, he doesn't say that France is the strongest ally. He says there is none stronger than France.

Britain and France could be equally strong allies.

Sounds like some in Britain have that arrogance that some in America have...that ours is the biggest and bestest of everything, and anyone who doesn't agree with that is, well, you get the idea.

O is probably just showing stalwart support, after the beating that France has taken in America the last decade ("freedom fries" and all).

[xchrom]

2. don't you think it has more to do with changing the stupid bush era

'you're with us or you're against us' bullshit?

i do.

[impik]

3. Yesss! He also hates dogs, gays, progressives and America

[Hutzpa]

26. You forgot Black people. n/t

[JoePhilly]

34. ... and atheists.

[Bluenorthwest]

43. It is not required to hate to be on the wrong side of justice.

The President is opposed to equal rights for gay people, and that will not spin away. Most bigotry is tied more closely to apathy than to hatred. Many of his more viciously spoken surrogates claim both to 'not hate gays' and that we should have war waged against us, so anyone with a mind looks to actions not to self selected labels. Just so you know. His personal emotions are irrelevant. His actions are all that matter. I'd rather be hated as an equal than loved as a second class citizen.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. I defy you to prove to me that anyone at the Telegraph 'thinks'.

It is not where I look to find what 'the brits think' it is where I look to see what a Tory passes off as thought.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. It's the most widely-circulated broadsheet here, sadly.

And while I disagree with its political positions and opinion coverage, its journalistic standards aren't noteably low.

There are a bunch of tabloids with much wider circulation, which arguably reflect public opinion better but which tend to have very low standards of accuracy and honesty.

[nxylas]

20. That's because it's the only national broadsheet left

All the other national dailies have gone tabloid, with the exception of the Guardian, which opted for the Berliner format, halfway between a tabloid and a broadsheet.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

24. I still think of the Times, Independent, Grauniad etc as Broadsheets.

There's a fairly clear line in content between them and the Sun, Mail, Mirror, Express etc, and broadsheet vs tabloid is the quickest and easiest way to refer to them, even if it's now just a historical thing.

[nxylas]

25. In that case, I'm pretty sure the Times outsells the Torygraph

Or used to, anyway, I haven't seen the most recent ABC circulation figures.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. No, the Telegraph has outsold The Times for decades

In the past few years, The Times overtook the Telegraph in 'full rate' sales, but when subscriptions are included, the Telegraph has always been ahead:

MediaGuardian, Friday 10 December 2004

The Times has overtaken the Daily Telegraph in full-rate sales for the first time following its historic decision to go fully tabloid.

Full-rate sales of the Times increased by 66,515 copies to 504,568 last month after it ditched its broadsheet version, according to the latest ABC figures.

This put it slightly ahead of the Telegraph with 500,214, although total sales are still well behind the Barclay brothers-owned newspaper.

Overall, sales of the Times rose by nearly 4% last month, boosted by a hefty promotional campaign and a programme of giveaway DVDs, which lured more than 25,000 new readers to the paper, taking its total circulation to 682,109 copies.
...
Sales of the Telegraph reached 917,001 copies in November, up 1.4% on October, taking it back to the level of November 2003.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/dec/10/newspaperformats.abcs

guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 January 2010

In December, the Times sold an average 521,535 copies, down 7.41% on the previous month, and 13.22% down year-on-year. Of these, 364,971 – 70% of the total – were sold at full rate, while subscriptions accounted for 119,524 copies sold.

The Telegraph's overall sale was down 5.5% on November to 703,249, a decline of 9.37% on December 2008.

Its full-rate sale was 311,243 – 44% of the total – while 330,008 copies were sold through its long-established subscription scheme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/15/abcs-quality-dailies-times-telegraph

[Skittles]

8. they're shell-shocked from eight years of bush

[GoCubsGo]

9. What a bunch of ninnies.

Is he supposed to say to Sarkozy, "You are our second best allies?" I never realized the Brits were so thin-skinned.

[LeftishBrit]

32. The Brits aren't. The RW writers are!

[GoCubsGo]

50. Just like here.

[Ikonoklast]

10. He probably ate some of their 'cuisine'.

That was enough for me.

[Uzybone]

11. LOL

[truebrit71]

23. ..coming from someone that lives in the country that gave the world McDonalds...

..I think that's a bit rich...:eyes:

[vaberella]

38. Hey...Everyone loves McDonalds. Or it wouldn't be around the world.n/t

[Swede]

12. You kids and your cliques.

nt

[Vicar In A Tutu]

13. The Telegraph is a VERY RW paper

Both that and fellow looney work the Daily Mail might be popular reads, but please never think that they speak for rational citizens. Both have a strong pro-GOP agenda, for whatever godforsaken reason.

[TheBigotBasher]

14. No

but the Daily Mail hates Britain and both papers would love to cause an Anglo Amrtican split for ratings. The Mail is already trying to stir up anti EU rubbish so it will just be added fun.

[Marsala]

15. Britain - our neediest and most insecure ally

Obama says one nice thing about another country, and suddenly they're all "Oh noes, America doesn't love us anymore!!"

[Cali_Democrat]

16. "Britain - our neediest and most insecure ally"

You kidding? That title goes to Israel.

[TheBigotBasher]

18. I guess the World should judge America by

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

[molly77]

22. From reading the Guardian online comments re. WikiLeaks

You might be closer to the truth than you know.Have read that the propaganda is so pervasive 50% of America votes against their best interests. This comment was re. Rupert Murdoch taking over Britain's news.

[Marsala]

19. Israel's not insecure. They *know* they can push us around. n/t

[vaberella]

39. No no no. That's wrong. Israel has Congressman reppresentatives and Senators.

The Brits don't. Weiner for all intents and purposes supports ANYTHING Israel does. So no. Not Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

40. Nonsense

While both the UK and Israel are client-states, the Israelis do not control Congress, and while neither does the UK, some of our leaders have had a bit of (sometimes unfortunate) influence. Blair was Bush's poodle, but his lies were used by the USA in the invasion of Iraq. Blair is living in the USA right now, spouting to Americans about the role of faith in politics.

[chieftain]

17. Probably not, but

as one who is aware of Britain's imperial history, he is likely to have a more balanced view of the empire than your typical Anglophile.

[nxylas]

21. Most Brits aren't exactly proud of their imperial history either

At least outside of the right-wing press and people like Niall Ferguson, who put the Tory into Historian.

[LeftishBrit]

31. 'Balanced'?! As in 'fair and balanced'?

The phrases 'Nile Gardner' and 'balanced' don't belong in the same sentence.

Do you realize that he's a supporter of the Tea Party movement?

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Gardiner is a right wing hack who isn't worth your time

Sample dismantling of his bullshit: http://somethingquotable.posterous.com/because-somebody-needs-to-hate-on-nile-gardin

[Jeneral2885]

29. Maybe maybe not

But remember "we are the junior partner in the relationship" Cameron, D.

[LeftishBrit]

30. The Brits do NOT think so!

Among most Brits who think about American politics at all, Obama is very popular: certainly far more than the detested Bush.

Nile Gardner is a far-right writer for a far-right paper. He is right-wing both about British and American politics. In the run-up to the general election, it was all about the dangers of that radical left-winger Nick Clegg. Recently, titles have included:

'Democratic Congressman’s comparison of Republicans with Nazis is met with deafening silence from President Obama and America's liberal elites'

'A shameful week for America's liberal elites. The top 10 most ridiculous left-wing attacks on US conservatives following the Arizona shootings'

The opinion pieces and blogs at the Daily Telegraph are a cesspit of vile hard-right attitudes. Since a change in editorship, and since going online, the opinions have moved from traditional British establishment Conservative ('the Torygraph'), which was quite bad enough, to something often more like teabaggerism. I think they are seeking clientele among American Republicans. Gardner has indeed expressed support for the Tea Party movement more than once. Another Torygraph writer, Daniel Hannan (also a Euro-MP and particularly noted for his hatred of the NHS) even imitated the teabaggers to the extent of organizing a 'Brighton Tea Party'.

Please do not equate 'the Brits' with our most right-wing media spokespeople!

[nxylas]

33. Urgh, Daniel Hannan

The man who makes a nice living lying to Americans about our NHS in order to scare them out of wanting something similar for themselves. Evil, evil man.

[LeftishBrit]

42. Indeed

When he's not making a nice living by riding on the EU gravy train while screaming about how evil the EU is!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. The Telegraph is like a printed version of Fox News

and just as trustworthy.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

54. No, there's a big difference.

The Telegraph is a proudly and openly right-wing publication, which presents its right-wing views as "this is what the right wing thinks", and usually (although by no means always) manages to keep its coverage and its opinoin commentary separate - its standards of factual accuracy are not bad.

Fox News is a covertly right-wing media organisation that pretends to be centrist, and melds commentary, bias and distortion into its coverage.

[Arkana]

36. Boy, the British are a bunch of touchy assholes.

They must be still sore where we kicked their asses 250 years ago :evilgrin:

[Pirate Smile]

37. Oh, FFS, not this shit again. It is getting old. They may be getting more people to hate them with

this constant, repetitive, insecure crap continually pushed by the RW media in their Country.



edit to add - yes, I know this doesn't represent most of the British people, just a story line some RW peeps keep pushing.

[boppers]

52. Hey, is that Hugh Laurie?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie

If so, very nice touch to this thread.

[Bluenorthwest]

44. The Telegraph is a rag filled with noise

Not worthy of consideration.

[RB TexLa]

46. Mexico, Israel, China and The Republic of Ireland are the countries that have a special relationship

with the US not britain.

[struggle4progress]

47. Hmmm. That's from the Telegraph. Nuff said.

[CreekDog]

48. I love how the people who past the most inflammatory things about Obama...

Never seem to have an opinion on the scurrilous thing they post.

[craigmatic]

49. The UK government has been pulling away from the alliance recently.

France hasn't traditionally supported US policy. I think this speaks more to Obama's relationship with Sarkozy more than it does US policy though. I don't think Obama is as close to Cameron on a personal level.

[Cali_Democrat]

51. Don't take the British press seriously except for maybe the BBC and Guardian

The rest are pretty much tabloids. I've got family in Britain and they know better than to take that garbage seriously.

[boppers]

53. Uh oh....Britan found out we were dating other people, too.

"No, really, honey, what we have together is special."

:eyes:

[WI_DEM]

55. yeah, I'm sure the British people would love to have Bush back

[nxylas]

56. It's because Obama is so popular here that the RW media needs to trash him

The three elderly right-wing men who own 75% of our newspapers must be frothing at the mouth about an upstart like Obama having such high approval ratings in Britain while their boy Cameron, a man from "the right sort of background", came to the end of his honeymoon period about a millisecond after they got him sort-of-elected.

[HipChick]

57. The Brits themselves actually adore Obama...the RW papers there

not so much so..