Wonderboy Abroad

Much was made by conservatives over Wonderboy's nearly-immediate post-election trip to India, Indonesia, et. al. Rather like running away from the distasteful, though misunderstood results of last Tuesday's Democrat drubbing.

Unfortunately, Fox News' Glenn Beck reported an outlandish figure of $2B for the trip, citing stories that 34 US naval vessels would be standing by off India.

Many aspects of Beck's contended trip details were debunked by others in the media. I'm a little surprised, but more disappointed, that he didn't take more time to check some of the more obvious factual errors. The US Navy spokesperson sounded like he nearly doubled over with laughter at the idea that more than 10% of available fleet vessels would be detailed to a diplomatic visit.

But Beck did point up something notable and troubling. He reported that the First Rookie was meeting with an Indian Chamber of Commerce group. Which is odd, as Beck noted that Wonderboy won't meet with any American Chamber people and, instead, accused them, without proof, of accepting and using foreign donations in the recent Congressional election campaigns.

Watching some of the footage from the Anointed One's risky town hall formatted meetings with apparently-ordinary Indians, you couldn't help but notice his inability to answer tough questions directly there, either. One young woman asked him about Jihads, and he rambled off into an incomprehensible muck of a reply. The poor girl must have been quite disappointed. There was a similar incident a few days later regarding some other social policy issue.

Meanwhile, global leaders are heaping opprobrium on Wonderboy for the US' fiscal policies of huge deficits and excessive spending, coupled with the Fed's currency devaluations via QE2. It seems most of the rest of the world, including Southeast Asia, holds stronger beliefs in free market capitalism than the sitting president of the US.

Truly a sad state of affairs.