Obama Snubbed Arroyo

Snubbed
FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
11/07/2008

Barack Obama isn’t Dubya, Gloria Arroyo’s political soulmate, but that early, shortly after Obama won the American presidency, there went Gloria, placing a congratulatory call to the first black American president, no doubt trying to establish — propaganda-wise — that no matter who sits in the White House, she would still be regarded as an Asian leader who counts in the geopolitical sphere.
Oops. Her call was ignored and she does the next propaganda thing, which was to claim that as she goes off to New York, she will be contacting Obama and seek a meeting with him.

Now the US envoy to the Philippines has already stated that Obama will not be entertaining visits from foreign leaders, as he has to work, not only on the transition process, which means putting up his Cabinet, along with planning his inaugural.

Why she has again scheduled a trip to the USA at this time, when there really is hardly a necessity for it for the Philippine side, can be accurately guessed at.
This trip was planned to ensure that she would have that opportunity to meet with whoever won the US presidency, just as she did the last time she was on a trip to the United Nations.

In that trip, she flew backwards and forwards, across the US of A, just for that chance meeting with both Obama and Republican John McCain.

In the end, she could only meet with McCain, but she had to fly somewhere else just to have that brief photo-op meeting while she cooled her heels in another state, waiting for that chance to meet with Obama and have yet another photo-op, for her and her aides to be able to claim that she is on first name basis with both Republican and Democrat presidential candidates.

She ended up with a phone-call with Obama, and the Malacañang propaganda machine churned out the hogwash of the call having taken long, and that they talked about many important issues linking the US and the Philippines, and the assurance that the US and the Philippines would remain strong allies.

That phone call with Obama and the meeting with McCain cost the Filipinos a lot of money as she was traipsing all over the US for these.

But trust her to pressure whoever in the Philippine Embassy in Washington to get her a meeting with Obama, and perhaps even squeeze out of Obama, or anyone in his camp, an invitation for his inaugural, for her to again come up with the usual propaganda play.

And guess what? She tried calling Obama again and again, her call was ignored. Oops.
Not having succeeded in personally giving Obama her congratulations, Malacañang went into high gear, saying that with a Democrat in the White House, one can already be certain of a positive response to the veterans bill which she says is for the neglected Filipino veterans, for whom she has been fighting.

But hello. The Democrats in both the House and the Senate have been in power for the last two years, and while the US Senate did come up with the measure, the US House of Representatives, dominated by the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, didn’t give it its imprimatur. It isn’t likely to fly now, even with Obama — who is being portrayed as understanding Asians, having spent time in Indonesia as a young boy — in the White House and with the Democrats in full control of the legislature.
The reason is simple. The US government, even if headed by a president who is regarded as one who inspires and gives Americans hope in the future under his leadership, he faces gargantuan problems which, even he admits, cannot be resolved in one year or even in one term.

He faces the problem of America having two wars — Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention serious irritants and tension between Pakistan and the US, along with the Russia-Georgia-Nato conflict plus the problem of the instability in the Middle East.
And there is the serious economic and financial crisis America faces and jobs to be
generated and homes being lost, along with the Americans’ falling 401K, not to mention the huge $10 trillion US debt, plus a $1 trillion budget deficit.
And Gloria thinks Obama will have time for her at this time?

Still, if Obama is as smart and as politically savvy as his supporters claim he is, then he should know that even the Republicans, in the time of George W. Bush in the White House, had already advised him years ago not to be identified with Gloria or entertain her for a visit.

She is poison to the Filipinos. And she can be poison to Obama.