Some concrete numbers: a world-wide opinion poll conducted shows Obamawith an 80% approval rating in India in 2009 compared with a 45% rating for Bushin 2008. So aside from the issue of how meaningful these polls are in a third world country, the numbers don’t back up what your friend was saying anyway.
Unfortunately, these number don’t say much about the total costs involved, since they exclude the costs of the Secret Service.
No doubt these replies were made tongue in cheek and intended only as attempts at humor (never cared for puns :p). But it does I think reveal the prevalent image of India, that is all too common in the western world. This woeful lack of knowledge about India other than culinary dishes was humorlessly quaint fifteen years ago but is downright ignorant 2010. The almost reflexive dismissive putdown association of India with curry and other fan favorites like their “hilarious” accent or assorted jibes about outsourcing is tired. The extant of ignorance among the US populous and current roster of politicians about the Asian subcontinent is disconcerting.
No one put India down or dismissed the country. They’re just puns on the names of two foods that are popular in the West (and are delicious, too).
I was speaking in general terms as regards to the perception of India in the US, which I think diminishes the importance of the presidents visit and deploring the fact that the discussion in the press was so easily sidetracked to what is less than a nonissue, this unfortunately seems to be in accord with the current state of affairs in the US today.
Rachel Maddow last night had an interesting, 20-min or so discussion of the closed-circuit right-wing media machine. Something gets picked up, amplified, “fact-checked” within itself, and eventually begins to leak out.
I am sympathetic to the difficulties of trying to inform the public of the various issues when the opposition possesses such an effective means of disseminating outright falsehoods. Their modus operandi is as have been evident, to discredit the president at every turn, hoping in this case to taint whatever perceived boost he might receive from the visit. Failing to realize the real damage they are doing to themselves and their country by reducing the meeting of heads of state to such a naked partisan attack job. Nevertheless it should be expected and countered vigorously by those who support him in his endeavors.
Where is the effective debunking machinery that was evident during the presidential election? It seems to have been discarded wholesale. It has been said by various political commentators that it is when the dust settles after an election that the real job of governing begins, this sentiment it would seem no longer applies. Whether it’s the 24hour news cycle, the increasingly shortening attention span and gullibility of the electorate or the amount of money that a politician must collect in donations each week to be a viable candidate, the election cycle today is continuous. This new political reality has not been taken to hart by the president and his supporters.
You should give these Western idli-alogues a dosa their own medicine.
(Better?)
I’d just like to note many of the other costs presented were for per trip numbers. Bachmann and FOX news claimed a cost of 200 million per day. For the three day trip that’s a cost of 600 million.
Still the White House’s response fails to characterize their opponents ignorance in appropriate terms, ‘The claims are wildly exaggerated’. Yeah good job debunking that one guys… How about a real response like ‘Anyone who believes this trip would cost 200million dollars a day would have to be dumber then a bag of shit’
Now the net result of FOX’s reporting will be maybe he isn’t spending 200 million but the president doesn’t care about how tax Dollars are spent and puts his entire staff up in the Taj Mahal.
My garbled sentence and other curious syntax is a consequence of me being a nonnative English speaker (and also not a very proficient one), it was not intended to read like a rail against the west™.
Michelle Bachman is paying $50 million a day of taxpayer money on cosmetics
I call these figures “possibly overblown”, but what’s the likely truth here?
Have these facts been vetted by Republican fact checkers, or not?
You, sir, have no shame.
I like that.
Bachmann might be okay with that. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum.
According to some commenters on the CNN story regarding the presidential trip to Asia, Obama is now bringing *40,000 *people for a free vacation to India while American’s starve.
Er, yes they do. Pages 26-29 describe the methodology by which the GAO arrived at the total costs. In particular:
If you believe the $200 million per day figure is legit, or that this trip is somehow going to cost substantially more on a relative basis than prevous presidential trips, feel free to provide factual info that supports your case. Until then, I’ll stick with the GAO figures as a baseline, thanks.
Except that’s not even the whole trip. The India vist is part of ten-day swing through Asia that includes stops in indonesia, Japan and a G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea. It’s a little unclear why the right-wing noise machine is separating out the India leg from the total costs of this trip. I mean, $2 billion for the total, while just as much bullshit as the lower figure, sounds even more outrageous.
The Right is just loving this story. Apparently it’s now been repeated by Beck, Hannity, and Ron Paul. They’ll call anything the New York Times publishes a flat-out lie, but some anonymous guy in India is the very model of veracity.
It’s now made its way to Facebook. A lie can run 'round the world while the truth is still getting its pants on.
I’m actually more than a little disgusted by how easily Conservatives (as a whole) can be lied to.
Just keep it in mind when next conservatives complain that liberals think they are stupid.
When you lie down with pigs, as the conservatives have been doing, you get mud on you.
For a moment I thought we had agra-vated you. Although I realize our puns are not likely to indira ourselves to you.
Wow, these puns are easy! It’s like taking Gandhi from a baby!
I posted to FB debunking this, and actually got into a comment argument with someone until I overwhelmed him with facts and he went away. But I don’t think I changed his mind.