Another heartwarming moment provided by our Commander-In-Chief, THE President Of THE United States, THE Leader Of The Free World !!!
In his latest attempt to disprove America’s exceptionalism, President Obama offers a welcoming handshake and his world-renowned BOW during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
Cuban-American lawmakers expressed their displeasure Tuesday over the incident. Distrust of the Castro government runs deep in the Cuban-American community, particularly in Florida where many refugees still live. “It is nauseating,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who fled Cuba with her family when she was a child. “He shook the hand of a murderer, a thug, and those are bloody hands,: she said. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also released a statement saying, “If the president was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba.”
The grip-and-grin is only the second time since the Castro family took power 50 years ago that a U.S. president has shaken hands with a leader of the communist nation’s regime. Bill Clinton was the first, clasping hands with the previous ruler, regime-founder Fidel Castro in 2000. To my knowledge however, at least Bill didn’t offer a ‘bow’ with it.
The move drew immediate outrage on the right also as conservatives bashed Obama’s willingness to elevate the leader of an oppressive regime famed for its human-rights abuses.
Obama shook Castro’s hand as he made his way down a line of dignitaries, including South African President Jacob Zuma and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, on his way to deliver an address honoring the late South African leader. In the speech in Johannesburg, Obama praised Mandela as the “last great liberator of the 20th century. He changed laws, but he also changed hearts.”
Ros-Lehtinen said afterward that Castro should have listened to Obama’s message about how some leaders praise Mandela without respecting human rights. “I think that was a message to Raul Castro,” she said. It’s unclear whether more will come of the gesture, as efforts by the Obama administration to thaw relations between Cuba and the U.S. have been slow-going. The U.S. government eased the embargo on the island in 2011 by allowing some Americans to travel there. But the freeze on Cuba, dating back to when Fidel Castro took power, largely has remained in place – and Cuba’s human rights record, particularly its intolerance of political dissent, continues to draw the scorn of rights groups and western governments across the globe.
For your viewing pleasure, I have included a couple other examples of our leader displaying his interpretation of American exceptionalism for you which speak for themselves:
