President Obama to meet with Putin at the United Nations
The two world leaders will come face-to-face amid tensions over Syria, Ukraine
Pope Francis gave him a boost, Republican Speaker John Boehner is sobbing off into the sunset, and China’s Xi Jinping gave him paper promises on the environment and cybertheft. No wonder President Obama is feeling cocky.
So much so that his press secretary was eager to portray his boss as way, way tougher than Vladimir Putin.
In a ridiculous bid to reduce geopolitical clashes to playground posturing, Josh Earnest told the press corps that the reports that Obama had requested a meeting with Putin were flat-out wrong. The truth, Earnest insisted, was that Putin was “desperate” for a meeting and that Obama, after “repeated requests” from the Russians, had deigned to see him Monday in New York.
The one-upmanship continued, The New York Times reported, when Earnest played body-language analyst to mock Putin. Pointing to a recent picture of the Russian leader with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Earnest noted that “President Putin was striking a now-familiar pose of less-than-perfect posture and unbuttoned jacket and, you know, knees spread far apart to convey a particular image.”
No doubt fear stalks the Kremlin and Putin is quaking. Barack Obama is mad at him and letting the whole world know!
To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.
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