Althouse: Lech Walesa rejects meeting with Obama...

May 27, 2011

Lech Walesa rejects meeting with Obama...

... as Obama arrives in Poland.

32 comments:

traditionalguy said...: No surprise here. A man who has stared the monster of the Evil Empire in the eye and survived to see it collapse before it murdered him is not going to glad hand a Marxist scumbag who surrendered an alliance with Poland to win some imaginary favor with the former KGB murderer, Putin. Walesa is under no delusions about Marxist tyrants who destroy capitalism to invoke the mythical blessings of socialism.; 5/27/11, 9:48 PM
Anonymous said...: paristroika; 5/27/11, 9:56 PM
Irene said...: This is because Walesa knows Obama is really a "dupnik."; 5/27/11, 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: WARSAW (AFP) – Lech Walesa, Poland’s Solidarity-era legend, ex-president and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner said Friday he would not accept an invitation to meet with fellow Nobel winner US President Barack Obama.

“It’s difficult to tell journalists what you’d like to say to the president of a superpower. This time I won’t tell him, I won’t meet him, it doesn’t suit me,” Walesa told Poland’s public broadcaster TVP.; 5/27/11, 10:01 PM
Michael said...: What traditionalguy so eloquently wrote.; 5/27/11, 10:03 PM
edutcher said...: When it comes to guys who pack the gear, Netanyahu, the former commando, and Walesa, the guy who took on the Warsaw Pact, they see right through Little Zero.

Worse, they put him in his place.; 5/27/11, 10:10 PM
rcocean said...: Fellow Nobel Prize winners - LoL. Why would Lech, who stared down the commies, want to meet our Popinjay of a President?; 5/27/11, 10:30 PM
dick said...: I'm just surprised that the Lib commentators here don't come on and glorify Obama and tell us how bad Walesa is for choosing to go to Italy rather than meet Zero.

WV = pawns; 5/27/11, 10:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Walesa is bad-- a very, very bad mustachioed man-- for choosing to go to Italy rather than meet Obama.

All glory to Obama! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!; 5/27/11, 10:46 PM
deborah said...: Now Obama knows how the Dalai Lama felt.; 5/27/11, 10:52 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Lech Walesa expected a personal invitation. And, didn't get one.

So,he responded by saying he wasn't going to show up.

Obama does NOT understand Europeans, in general.

And, no one has to add to what Traditionalguy says, anyway. Other than "Man Plans and God Laughs." And, yes, from Evita. The song about her European Tour.; 5/27/11, 10:54 PM
1775OGG said...: Wonder if The Won and Hillary still cavort around the State Department entrance shouting slogans about "Smart Power."

The new Troika is Harper of Canada, Walesa of Poland, and Bibi Netanyahu of Israel; close to being the true leaders, spiritually of the free world.

Jeez, the USA is so screwed as long as The Won is still in office; January 20, 2013, needs to get here fast.; 5/27/11, 10:56 PM
yashu said...: At long last, Obama receives something abroad that he actually deserves.; 5/27/11, 10:58 PM
JAL said...: Gravitas declined to meet with Wiffle Ball.; 5/27/11, 11:41 PM
Quaestor said...: Two years ago Obama had a golden opportunity to gain something like parity with today's real statesmen, that is to say he could have been a mensch. All he needed to do was humbly decline the once prestigious but now stupid and worthless Nobel Peace Prize. Just a short note saying in effect "thank you, but this honor you have offered me is premature at best." Not only would Obama have confounded his critics, but he could have rescued a great institution from stewardship of poltroons into which it has unfortunately fallen. But noooo....

Could've been a hero, wound up a zero.; 5/27/11, 11:45 PM
chickelit said...: I thought Obama had those Chicago Polls under control?; 5/27/11, 11:49 PM
Anonymous said...: " Just a short note saying in effect 'thank you, but this honor you have offered me is premature at best.' Not only would Obama have confounded his critics, but he could have rescued a great institution from stewardship of poltroons into which it has unfortunately fallen. But noooo....

Could've been a hero, wound up a zero."

Perfectly stated. Not only the part about Obama but also the part about the Nobel Prize committee. Except perhaps for the choice of "poltroon," which means coward. I don't think they were cowardly, but they were certainly ridiculous. Essentially they awarded the Nobel Prize to themselves, for their own wonderfulness in picking Obama, not for anything he had actually accomplished.; 5/28/11, 12:28 AM
Quaestor said...: Poltroon also means ignoble, dishonorable, or degenerate.; 5/28/11, 12:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Stung by Walesa's rejection, Obama did one of his famous "pivots" and spurned the honor offered him by The Royal Society. That will teach the Euroweenies: Don't mess with The One.; 5/28/11, 2:39 AM
Penny said...: "Lech Walesa rejects meeting with Obama..."

...and someone had the time to notice?

COOL!

So what the hell's going on in Poland these days?

Once upon a time this guy, Walesa, organized worker's unions in Poland and most of the free world thought it would be a "happily ever after" for Poland?

Sorry to say, I lost track of Walesa. But Poland's still on the map, isn't it?; 5/28/11, 4:38 AM
Anonymous said...: The truly famous people are realizing that Barack Obama is a poseur - trying to glom on to their popularity in order to steal their shine for himself.

Barack Obama did nothing to earn his Nobel Peace prize except be a Socialist, so it's hardly surprising that real Nobel Peace prize winners - people who actually, you know, promoted peace and don't have armies of drone aircraft killing brown people throughout the world - just don't want to lend their legitimacy to a fraud.

Good on Walesa for refusing to allow Barack Obama to sneak into his photo ops.; 5/28/11, 4:58 AM
Michael Farris said...: "So what the hell's going on in Poland these days?"

Oh the usual, live, love, work, trying to find parking spaces, that kind of thing.

Quick rundown:

As the first democratically elected president in the post communist era he was the poster child for the maxim that the person who leads the revolution is not the best person to run things afterward. His term was marked by constant, usually pointless, petty squabbles which were as likely to be with allies as with opponents (this is actually the norm in Polish politics). Even his strongest supporters were disappointed in his lackluster performance.

He wasn't helped by his often scrambled grammar, working class accent and habit of saying things that made no sense (those who translated his words into English cleaned things up ... a lot). His roughhouse manners also didn't sit well with a populace that values courtly manners either.

He was so bad that a former communist beat him in the next election. Said former communist didn't do much as president and that suited most Polish people just fine and he was re-elected.

A series of economic scandals forced the post-communist leftist government of the early 2000's out of office and the next president was Lech Kaczynski, a former Solidarity ally but longtime bitter enemy of Wałęsa. Kaczynski also represented a large fraction of the older population that regarded Wałęsa as a traitor (!) and communist informer and spy (!). The idea is the communists new things were going to end and wanted a soft landing and Wałęsa was a mole in the Solidarity movement who helped communist officials thrive in post communist Poland.

After a few years out of the spotlight Wałęsa began adopting an elder statesman role and most people now probably have more positive than negative feelings about him (except for the minority who want him in jail for not formenting violent revolution in 1989).

Solidarity still exists but is almost entirely irrelevant, a tiny remnant of a once powerful organization that could not adopt or adapt to post communist realities.

Overall Poland is okay, joining the EU helped the country in many ways and it's one of the few countries to not really be affected by the 2008 crash and continuing economic crisis in Europe (knock wood).; 5/28/11, 6:47 AM
Floyd said...: Who knew Lech Walesa hated Black people?; 5/28/11, 8:15 AM
paminwi said...: "Solidarity still exists but is almost entirely irrelevant, a tiny remnant of a once powerful organization that could not adopt or adapt to post communist realities."

Don't we have a Solidarity branch here in Madison? All those folks who circle the Capitol and scream "Solidarity, Solidarity!"? Are you saying they are "almost entirely irrelevant"?; 5/28/11, 8:44 AM
windbag said...: I admire Lech Welesa. I love this quote concerning not meeting with Obama: "It's difficult to tell journalists what you'd like to say to the president of a superpower. This time I won't tell him, I won't meet him, it doesn't suit me."

It doesn't suit me. Hah. The richness of that statement is delicious.; 5/28/11, 8:52 AM
MadisonMan said...: How old is Walesa? I was actually a little surprised to read this, because I was thinking he was dead.

Sorry about that Lech. Then I look things up and see he is only 67!! That's young. Oops.; 5/28/11, 9:59 AM
clint said...: As I recall, one of President Obams's first foreign policy acts was to break our commitment to sell missile defense systems to Poland.

For some reason, they were worried that they are within missile range of Iran, after all the support they gave us in Iraq.; 5/28/11, 11:32 AM
windbag said...: As I recall, one of President Obams's first foreign policy acts was to break our commitment to sell missile defense systems to Poland.

On the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion. Smart diplomacy.; 5/28/11, 12:30 PM
Peano said...: Carol_Herman said...Obama does NOT understand Europeans, in general.

... nor Americans in particular.; 5/28/11, 1:44 PM
mariner said...: Good for him!; 5/28/11, 3:27 PM
Deb said...: Every time O. gets a little smackdown like this, it's like a hug from Jesus.

wv: surgy; 5/28/11, 5:18 PM
reader_iam said...: “It’s difficult to tell journalists what you’d like to say to the president of a superpower. This time I won’t tell him, I won’t meet him, it doesn’t suit me,” Walesa told Poland’s public broadcaster TVP.

Simply speaking: There's little point in trying to tell what you know to people who don't want to know what you're trying to tell them. In the case of Lech Walesa, there's NO point in attempting that. He actually had a hand in changing the world. (And he actually at least in part earned his Nobel well before receiving it.)

That said, his preferred model is not necessarily the best one for the U.S. His character and courage? That's something to consider, with all due respect and thoughtful consideration.; 5/28/11, 11:37 PM