Apparently the Norwegians haven’t been bowled over by Pres. Obama’s charm in Oslo, as he stopped off for a half an hour to pick up his award and buy some postcards in the VIP lounge in Gardermoen Airport. He stood up King Haakon, who’d invited him to dinner, skipped the Viking Ships Museum tour, and—and this really stung—failed to pose for the traditional “Edvard Munch’s ‘Scream’” photo.
I don’t suppose today’s speech, in which he stunned the civilized world by suggesting that sometimes it’s actually necessary to wage war, helped him much. The Norwegians are still trying to live down the eternal shame of having carried on a resistance to the German invaders in World War II. Lives lost, infrastructure ruined, the economy smashed, ski holidays missed, and for what? Freedom. Independence. What an embarrassment. If the Nazis were still in charge, think how efficiently they’d be implementing Green policies today!
But in fact, insult has been the Democratic Party’s stance toward Norway for years now. I remember my last visit to family over there, when my relatives were discussing a presidential visit by Bill Clinton. The big thing they remembered was that Clinton had sipped from a water glass while somebody was giving a speech. That’s not done in Norway, apparently. (This bothered me a little, as I’d done the very same thing during a wedding reception I’d attended in Haugesund a few days earlier. But then I don’t have a protocol office to advise me. On the other hand, Pres. Obama doesn’t seem to have one either.)
I recalled an article I’d read some time before in a Norwegian paper, about how (the divine) Sissel Kyrkjebø had sung for a gathering in Washington, and Hillary Clinton and Al Gore had talked loudly all through her song.
Despite all this, Norway loves the Clintons.
Because that’s the way to a Norwegian’s heart. Kick him in the sardines.
The Germans should have tried that.
What’s with the Germans refusing to support the case against Khalid Sheikh Muhammad because we are seeking the death sentence? Have they forgotten or twisted everything they might have learned over the last half-century?
About Mr. Obama in Norway, I heard Ann Coulter say she pitied him. The last barrier of real racism, she said, was the condescension or patronization of European liberals.
Maybe the next time we hold an election, the Europeans won’t be so gung-ho for the candidate that appears the most European culturally.
Phil, the Germans decided that any execution by the state is morally wrong. Having lost the compass that differentiates between right and wrong in the previous century, they decided to pretend it does not exist, or is unreadable.