Ew.

White House Dossier:

"Sheesh, this is kind of uncomfortable.... Weird seeing the president trying too hard...."

 

See for yourself:

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/03/20/video-obama-arrives-israel/

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

The gusher of geniality has, I suspect, a lot to do with Obama's desire to keep himself out of any more imbroglios than he's already embroiled in. Had he put an intense squeeze on the Israelis, he'd have stirred up a fuss (at the very least) -- and a fuss is the last thing he needs at the moment. With North Korea threatening to nuke the American mainland, with Iran racing closer to its own nuke, with Egypt at risk of disintegrating, with Turkey devolving into a jihadi state, with Cyprus gnawing at the foundations of the EU -- and, most recently, with the possibility that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, Obama doesn't need more on his plate. In fact, if he does have to take military action against Syria -- and, with his red-line comment, he's backed himself into a corner from which he may not be able to extricate himself without taking military action -- he may find he very much needs Israel's help. I doubt that he had his heart in the fusillade of friendliness that we heard today -- but, from a purely pragmatic point of view, he didn't have much choice.