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Why is Charles Krauthammer dissing Brazil?

Tue, 10/27/2009 - 10:07am

I'm not surprised by conservative Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer's negative comments about President Obama in an interview with Der Spiegel, but what's his problem with Brazil?

Krauthammer: He is a man of perpetual promise. There used to be a cruel joke that said Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be; Obama is the Brazil of today's politicians. He has obviously achieved nothing. And in the American context, to be the hero of five Norwegian leftists, is not exactly politically positive.

Brazil has "obviously achieved nothing"? The country has pulled off a veritable economic miracle in recent years, maintaining impressive growth rates and accumulating enough cash reserves to become a net creditor, all while expanding social programs. It's weathered the global economic downturn surprisingly well and along with East Asia, seems to be leading the pack in recovery. It's a global leader in investment in alternative energy. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his foreign minsiter Ceslo Amorim have become ubiquitous and influential participants at global summits -- and as my boss recently argued, have shown the Latin American left an alternative to Hugo Chavez's confrontational populism. Brazil recently beat the U.S. for the right to host the 2016 Olympics. (Krauthammer may remember that one.)

I'd say calling someone the "Brazil of politicians" should be a compliment.

Joshua Keating | Permalink |

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Latin America | Obama Administration

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Read Again

by petrocw on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:47am

I'm not a fan of CK, but I don't think his statement has anything to do with contemporary Brazil. Note the words: "used to be a cruel joke." He's applying what "used to be" a joke about Brazil to Obama. He's not commenting on Brazil, or Lula, or Chavez, or anything except Obama. Perhaps the only comment about Brazil is his use of the term "cruel joke," which makes it seem as if he didn't necessarily agree with the joke when it "used to be" told.

Read harder next time.

Agree with petrocw

by dellis on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 1:13pm

The interview was fascinating and masterful, and I don't think it makes sense to pick up on this one aside. Nonetheless, the Hammer was referring to the old joke about Brazil, which has clearly expired at this point. He clearly was not insulting, demeaning, or not appreciating modern Brazil, which has flourished in the past decade, as you note.

read don't misread

by sfernando on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 5:24pm

petrocw is right you misread, due probably to your indefensible and irrational bias when it comes to anything obama.
btw i misspell sometimes, but i am not a blogger in a mag with some claim to a reputation (long past and receding fast).

bias, irrationality , and sloppiness, typical of this site.

well it must have something...

by Lure D. Lou on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 5:44pm

going for it if people like you read it often enough to make such sweeping assessments...you must have an awful lot of time on your hands to spend it with a publication that you find so wanting....or are you employed by the right-wing haters who want to discourage anyone from supporting the only decent President we've had since Carter?

I suggest you move over to the National Review asap to spare your delicate sensibilities. Nit-picking nattering nabobs of negativism have no place on this site...even in the comments section.

gee.... channelling Spiro Agnew this early....

by loupgarous on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 8:42pm

...just confirms my judgment that Obama is the liberal Nixon.

When liberals uses the classic Safire-authored line "nattering nabobs of negativism" to defend the least competent President we've had since Carter, and potentially the most corrupt president since Nixon (he shot past Clinton during the campaign, when he recruited local law-enforcement and prosecutors in Missouri to "investigate" people who were dissing Obama).

Let's face it - the original blog was a case of classical overreach. The guy completely misinterpreted something Krauthammer said in order to hang a really lame blog entry on it. Now people are calling him on it.

I suggest YOU move to moveon.org or some other place where the shrinking pool of Obama enthusiasts is huddling against the gales of disgust at "most promising young man in politics."

The Agnew line was used

by Lure D. Lou on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 9:37am

The Agnew line was used ironically...but that's neither here nor there...as for your liberal Nixon comment, I think you have a screw loose. Please show evidence of the investigations you are talking about? I know for a fact that right-wing hate groups pay people like you to troll web-sites and put down any comments that might in any way be supportive of the President. (It's something they learned from AIPAC.) Aside from being racist ideologues, the right has lost its integrity thanks to Bush/Cheney in such a profound way that all you have left is hate, paranoia and intellectual bankruptcy.

President Obama was handed a bag of s--t on his first day in office and your ilk is now trying to blame him. Grow up and be patriotic like you wanted all of the rest of us to be when you were in charge.

Obama

by Mick on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 1:34am

Obama is a Usurper to Presidency. He is not a Natural Born Citizen. His father was not a Citizen when Obama 2 was born. Even if he was born in the White House, he is not a Natural Born Citizen. He must be Born in the US to 2 Citizen Parents. Oh, I know, "Crazy birther", you'll say. Well I don't care where he was born, could have been the White House, in JFKs lap. He is not a Natural Born Citizen
(which is the requirement, not American Citizen) because of a fact he has already admitted at Fight the Smears. AT BIRTH his citizenship was "governed" by the British Nationality Act of 1948. As a dual citizen AT BIRTH, he can never be a Natural Baorn Citizen. Just so you know, McCain, born in Colon, Panama, is not a Natural Born Citizen either.

Dear Mick

by Lure D. Lou on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 9:38am

who cares?

Obama not Nartural Born

by Mick on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 7:53pm

And there is why this Usurper non allegiant Socialist is allowed to scam his way to the highest office in the world, and why will lose the Constitution that shields us from the whims of an all powerful government. You should be ashamed.

English?

by Lure D. Lou on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 8:51pm

and you should learn to speak English.

Anything Krauthammer says is bad, is bad. is bad....

by loupgarous on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 8:30pm

in the eyes of some people. Like the guy who runs this blog.

Jumping on one line of Krauthammer's article, and misinterpreting THAT, is the mark of a dedicated ideologue.

Step away from the bong... there's still time...

Amorim

by Sceptic on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:21pm

There is so much in the Spiegel interview worthy of debating, it is telling that the poster chose the path of intentionally misconstruing Krauthammer's position. I can understand the pressure to post multiple times per day and still try to say something brilliant each time, but to ignore Krauthammer's "used to" and "cruel" comments shows that this poster was clearly just looking for a hook and cheapens whatever point he was trying to make.

Brazil's economic surge since 1994 has gone unnoticed by no one, including Krauthammer (whose late older brother, Marcel, incidentally, was born in Rio). And to suggest that the Brazilians would mind the quote, well, if I only had a "real" for each time I heard a Brazilian use the same "o pais do futuro .. e sempre vai ser" line ... . Finally, just two small corrections, if I may, first, twas Chicago that lost the Olympics, not the US. Second, the spelling is Celso, not Ceslo.

in addition to all else...

by anthonyxb on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 3:49am

it's compliment, not complement.

although, truth be told, that final misspelling was, indeed, a nice complement to one of the lamest paragraphs ever. good lord, this stuff wouldn't pass a high school newspaper editorial review board.

Brazil

by PRW on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 11:17am

I just love this magazine on line.
It may have a reputation (long past and receding fast) but its not a cruel joke.
One side presents its facts and suggests that those who disagree should be reading only items that they agree with already.
Each side is fifty per cent right and therefor one hundred per cent wrong. But don't leave.
And there are readers in every article talkback section, regardless of the articles spin, who can't believe that FP has gone so low that it publishes items that they disagree with.
I never heard this joke about Brazil. In fact I never heard any jokes about Brazil. Just my luck I get to heard it only when it used to be.
And then there is the birther. It must has been a satire: McCain not natural born citizen, two parents needed for citizenship, can not be a citizen of an other country. This spells trouble for all the Polish American citizens who have birth rights to Polish citizenship under its new laws. Next they will be after the Jews.

What happened in Missouri?