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President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

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Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#31

Post by ptaipale »

jlangenauer wrote: post #25
Angostura wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, as with the US you retain the honorific title 'President' even after leaving office.

Actually, you don't. Former Presidents are just addressed as "Mr Obama". http://emilypost.com/advice/addressing-a-former-president-of...

However, e.g. whitehouse.gov refers to "President Clinton" in its description (for the act of being born, not for his active role as president).

https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/williamjclinton

Where I live, Finland, a "President" is the official title for former presidents (there are now three alive) so I should actually address them as such. The current one is formally referred to as "President of the Republic". I can't really check how this is with Russia.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#32

Post by ptaipale »

jankotek wrote: post #13
eps wrote: post #8

Apparently in 2009 Obama visited Moscow and managed to meet both president Putin and president Medvedev. Granted, it is sometimes hard to remember who of these two is a president at any given moment, but a two-president state is a bit pushing it.

US has two presidents right now ;-)

No, I guess the next one is formally addressed as President-Elect.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#33

Post by chki »

random_upvoter wrote: post #21
jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

A couple of years back I saw president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on TV talking to a group of people in Tehran. He just stood on the top of a car with a megaphone and a big crowd of people surrounded him. Sure there were a few bodyguards, but you if you wanted you could pretty much tap him on the shoulder. Now I don't want to overestimate the merits of Iranian democracy, but I was kind of impressed by this. Compare…

"We just replace him with the next guy in a suit and tie" I think this misses a key point of democracy. The president is not important as a person but because he is legitimized by the american public. Replacing him requires an enormous effort which is really what it is all about. On top of that one could argue that the president has to be kept safe so that there is somebody willing to get elected and take the risk. Sure, someone will always become president but that person might not have the required skills.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#34

Post by chki »

random_upvoter wrote: post #21
jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

A couple of years back I saw president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on TV talking to a group of people in Tehran. He just stood on the top of a car with a megaphone and a big crowd of people surrounded him. Sure there were a few bodyguards, but you if you wanted you could pretty much tap him on the shoulder. Now I don't want to overestimate the merits of Iranian democracy, but I was kind of impressed by this. Compare…

"We just replace him with the next guy in a suit and tie" I think this misses a key point of democracy. The president is not important as a person but because he is legitimized by the american public. Replacing him requires an enormous effort which is really what it is all about. On top of that one could argue that the president has to be kept safe so that there is somebody willing to get elected and take the risk. Sure, someone will always become president but that person might not have the required skills.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#35

Post by kxd »

jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

Obama visited Ireland in 2011. I remember the Clinton visit in the '90s. Both shut the city down and increased the presence of security forces everywhere. I worked in the city centre at the time and it was chaos for a few days.

Making matters worse was the fact that a week or two prior the Queen visited (arguably a more important state visit, for historical reasons). So in effect, for about three weeks, Dublin was hell to commute in.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#36

Post by jankotek »

akjainaj wrote: post #29
jankotek wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dont be impressed. Nazi officials also traveled with minimal protection in occupied countries. When Reinhard Heydrich was killed, a few villages were leveled in retaliation. US president should be protected. But it should be protected as other military targets. You would never put a nuclear silo into large metropolitan area.

That's a nice Godwin there. Couldn't it be that Mahmoud is simply loved by his people? And it's not like the hypothetical killer of a US president would simply walk away from court.

You have no idea how this works.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#37

Post by prebrov »

ptaipale wrote: post #31
jlangenauer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, you don't. Former Presidents are just addressed as "Mr Obama". http://emilypost.com/advice/addressing-a-former-president-of...

However, e.g. whitehouse.gov refers to "President Clinton" in its description (for the act of being born, not for his active role as president). https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/williamjclinton Where I live, Finland, a "President" is the official title for former presidents (there are now three alive) so I should actually address them as such. The current one is formally referred to as "President of the Rep…

A friend of mine moved in next door to then President of Singapore. Even got visited on couple of Christmas dinners.

Neither of them new protocol for the ex-presidency thing and after President left office, upon mutual agreement neighbour now calls him "Uncle".

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#38

Post by dforrestwilson1 »

imron wrote: post #9

Here's another nifty visualisation - this time with drone strikes: http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

The statement that only 2% are high profile targets is kind of misleading. The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high.

I am not saying mistakes were not made. Civilians and kids have died for sure, but the majority of those killed were combatants. Implying otherwise makes me doubt the veracity of the other claims here.

Nifty visualization though.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#39

Post by nl »

megous wrote: post #20
imron wrote: post #9

Here's another nifty visualisation - this time with drone strikes: http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

I like the fact that the site includes all killed people. With 20% civilian casualties rate, the recent announcement of 50000 killed people in Syria/Iraq means US may have directly killed 10000 civilians in just the last two years there. https://airwars.org/ reports a lower number though. But theirs is a very conservative estimate. I wonder when will this escalation stop. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middl…

I don't think you can draw that conclusion.

The "50,000 ISIS fighters killed" claim includes all reasons for their deaths, not just US drone/air/special forces. Given the civil war in Syria and the anti-ISIS offensive in Iraq it's likely that the majority of those deaths aren't directly caused by US actions.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#40

Post by nl »

eps wrote: post #8

Apparently in 2009 Obama visited Moscow and managed to meet both president Putin and president Medvedev. Granted, it is sometimes hard to remember who of these two is a president at any given moment, but a two-president state is a bit pushing it.

I wonder what a correct-yet-short summary would be?

Met with then-President-now-Prime-Minister Medvedev and former-President-then-Prime-Minister-now-President-again Putin?

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