# President Obama Is Coming to Town **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 9, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436 "2012-11-09T01:24:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/21 "2012-11-19T03:02:54Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Brief account of his day yesterday](http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/321908/obama-arrives-on-whirlwind-tour) (Sunday). He moves on to Burma today, then Cambodia on Tuesday. > > Just remembered Thanksgiving is this Thursday, so I guess he’ll get back in Washington just in time to give the White House turkey the annual presidential pardon. So, if he gets delayed will the bird get it or would the VP step in and pardon the critter? :dubious: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/22 "2012-11-19T03:13:31Z")
And what about the poor bastard bird what _does_ end up getting eaten on the White House table? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/23 "2012-11-19T06:50:02Z")
This one’s interesting: [In Visit to Myanmar, Obama Will See a Nation That Shaped His Grandfather](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/asia/in-myanmar-obama-will-see-land-that-shaped-his-grandfather.html?_r=0) Seems the president is not the first Obama to visit Burma, as his Kenyan grandfather spent part of World War II there as a cook for a British Army captain. President Obama is in Burma now, having arrived a few hours ago. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/24 "2012-11-19T07:23:32Z")
Question 1: Why is the President so loved over there? Question 2: Is it Obama they love or just any US President? In case this is inferred as an passive agressive snark. I really am currious as to how so many people from a different country would take such great admiration of our President. I could understand maybe a handful of political junkies that would think this is neat. But what’s actually going on over there baffles me. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/25 "2012-11-19T09:22:00Z")
Really, just about any US president is viewed favorably here. Thailand is an easy country for Americans to be in. But President Clinton’s rock-star reception was even more than most presidents receive, and I’m not exactly sure why that was. I think President Obama’s reputation as just a likeable person period has preceded him, but he made no public appearances here so it’s difficult to gauge. But Thai see him lauded wherever he goes, especially right after he took office, receiving the Nobel prize, and that sort of stuff sticks with them. (It wasn’t just Thailand who gave Bill Clinton a hero’s welcome. During his state visit to Vietnam, the people went crazy over him. The Vietnamese government gave limited advance notice, and he even agreed to fly in during the wee hours of the morning to keep from rousing the public, but word got out and he was mobbed, or as mobbed as a Secret Service-protected president can be. I recall a good photo showing several Vietnamese college students in the hotel room next to his risking their necks just to reach across the balcony and shake Clinton’s hand. There’s something on his 2000 Vietnamese reception [here](http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/21/news/mn-55131).) I don’t remember President Bush receiving a _jubilant_ reception, although the wife and I were in Cambodia during his first trip here. (And he was here for the Apec summit and so was just one of many leaders.) I can tell you the Burmese people had high hopes for Bush due to Iraq and Afghanistan. It was sad, but many Burmese naively felt they just had to be next, that the US would not let the Burmese junta go unpunished after invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Many gleefuly anticipated a US invasion. That it never came baffled them. President Obama will be appearing publicly in Burma, he does still represent hope, and BBC has been showing all sorts of memorabilia springing up for sale on the streets – T-shirts, coffee mugs etc. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/26 "2012-11-19T11:27:51Z")
More of interest: [You Say ‘Tomato’…U.S. Likely to Stick With ‘Burma’ for the Time Being](http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/11/18/you-say-tomatou-s-likely-to-stick-with-burma-for-the-time-being/) Excerpts: \*\*"Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and many democracy activists inside and outside the country of some 60 million people still use British colonial name ‘Burma,’ which carried into independence after 1947. The reformist government led by President Thein Sein, though, insists on "Myanmar,’ introduced by the former military regime 23 years ago after a bloody crackdown that brought Mrs. Suu Kyi to prominence. "In practice, some U.S. officials seem to think it’s best to say neither. "During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s groundbreaking visit to Myanmar last year, she generally avoided using either name, preferring ‘the country’ or ‘this country.’ Other top U.S. diplomats frequently use ‘Burma/Myanmar’ to avoid giving offense and save time. “So while the official White House line is that the place Mr. Obama visits on Monday is ‘Burma,’ don’t necessarily expect him to keep reminding his hosts of that, or at least not too much.”\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/27 "2012-11-19T13:06:24Z")
“Why’d you say ‘Burma’?” “I panicked.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/28 "2012-11-20T04:27:08Z")
[Obama in Burma](http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/322132/obama-in-historic-myanmar-visit) He’s in Cambodia now. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/29 "2012-11-21T03:37:02Z")
And it looks like President Obama had some words for Cambodian strongman Hun Sen: [Obama chastises Cambodia’s leader on his home turf](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57552232/obama-chastises-cambodias-leader-on-his-home-turf/) Good for him. Excerpt: \*\*"In private, U.S. officials said, Mr. Obama pressed Hun Sen to release political prisoners, stop land seizures and hold free and fair elections. Aides acknowledged the meeting was tense, with the Cambodian leader defending his practices, even as he professed to seek a deeper relationship with the US. Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the president told Hun Sen that without reforms, Cambodia’s human rights woes would continue to be ‘an impediment’ to that effort."\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436/30 "2012-11-23T04:14:28Z")
Just one more: [A New York Times overview of the trip](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/world/asia/for-obama-and-clinton-a-partnerships-final-road-show.html?_r=1&). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-coming-to-town/640436.md?page=1)