Obama Cancels Putin Meeting Because Of Snowden, Because Diplomacy Is Like Kindergarten

from the petty-disputes dept

Wed, Aug 7th 2013 10:43am — Mike Masnick

The White House had hinted at this earlier, but now it's been confirmed that President Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of Russia's decision to grant temporary asylum to Ed Snowden. This seems petty in the extreme. No one honestly thought that Putin would simply hand over Snowden. And, really, of all the things to cancel a meeting about, this is the one that pushes him over the edge? He could have cancelled it over Putin's recent homophobic remarks or Russia's latest focus on censoring the internet or putting activists in jail or any number of other things that generally should offend American sensibilities. But using the Snowden asylum as the reason just seems like the federal government is really losing perspective in this whole NSA surveillance debate -- the one Obama claimed he "welcomed."

Honestly, this whole thing feels like kindergarten-style diplomacy. The Russians took "our ball" and so now we're mad at them and won't talk to them. In an adult world, cancelling a meeting over something like this just looks incredibly immature and petty. It's all for show, rather than any legitimate purpose. I'd rather we had a government that didn't do things for show, but for legitimate reasons. Unfortunately, it seems we're well past having that kind of government.

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Filed Under: barack obama, diplomacy, ed snowden, vladimir putin

39 Comments

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rw (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 9:38am

"it seems we're well past having that kind of government."

We haven't had the kind that uses legitimate reasons for anything in years.
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silverscarcat (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 9:42am

Dammit!
I have this mental image in my head now!

Obama: *Pounding the ground crying* I want Snowden! I want! I want! I want!
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Ninja (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 10:49am

So they'd rather risk major international incidents than back off and actually do some thinking over the situation and start cleaning the mess. Bolivia wasn't nearly as high profile as Russia.

This should be interesting to watch. Right now the Government is causing more damage than any leak from Snowden could. Much like the post 9/11 actions caused more harm than any building blown up could ever cause.
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Russ (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 10:51am

Didn't want to go anyway
I have seen it written on other sites that the WH was looking for an excuse because there wasn't anything to accomplish (in a PR sense) through meetings. No agreements, not even a significant joint statement. And the WH doesn't actually want to discuss serious issues without knowing the answer in advance. It is all theater
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 10:54am

Re: Didn't want to go anyway
Exactly. They knew they'd get flac for getting nothing done, so they used Snowden as an excuse to do nothing.
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Hephaestus (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:04am

Re: Dammit!
Someone should do an animated gif of him doing that, yah know ... a child having a tantrum in diapers with O's face on it.
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That One Guy (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:08am

Re: Dammit!
And now I have to go watch that DBZ: Abridged episode again, thanks for that.
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kiwini, 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:19am

Re: Re: Dammit!
Look on the bright side... by cancelling an expensive doomed-to-fail "diplomatic" mission, he's gaining another opportunity for a golf weekend for himself, and a bonus shopping expedition to Martha's Vineyard for his wife.

Das Prez is far less dangerous when he's on a putting green than when ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania, so let's support his thinly veiled efforts at "diplomacy".
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Zakida Paul (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:22am

Obama throws his toys out of the pram in a tantrum that would put my one year old cousin to shame.
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Wally (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:25am

Something to note...
This was an annual relations checkup between the two leaders. Vladimir Putin has expressed that his feelings are hurt about all this. It's like our foreign policies have gone to shites here in the US.

It is being reported that Russia's homophobic policies were exactly what these meetings were supposed to be for.

I hereby applaud the people for voting on TV edited charisma...and blindly ignoring the policies promised in the campaign.
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Wally (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:27am

Re: Re: Dammit!
You mean like the crying babies thing they did of LeBron James and Duane Wade?
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Hephaestus (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:37am

Re: Re: Re: Dammit!
Got URL?
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Levinath, 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:39am

"President Putin is acting like a school-yard bully and doesn't deserve the respect a bilateral summit would have accorded him," Schumer said. - Reuters

Pot. Kettle. LOLs.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:49am

Objectionable
He could have cancelled it over Putin's recent homophobic remarks or Russia's latest focus on censoring the internet or putting activists in jail or any number of other things that generally should offend American sensibilities.

Well, two of these three Obama has no issue with.
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Radical right wing leftist, 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:53am

I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 11:54am

Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
Hmmm, Firefox messed me up. It didn't give me a chance to put this in.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD
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Michael, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:00pm

Re: Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
Actually, your post was automatically redacted from the internet by the new NSA project code-named "X-CENSOR".
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powow, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:04pm

Diplomacy is like high school ...with nukes.
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John Fenderson (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:08pm

Re:
More like grade school.

But in fairness, the older I get the more apparent it is that none of us have ever progressed past grade school, really. We just have more expensive toys than we did as kids.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:09pm

and this is from the leader of the 'most powerful nation on Earth?' give me strength!it's like a kid spitting out the dummy when he cant have his own way!
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:11pm

DC needs to send itself some FEMA aid...
Someone needs to send a massive amount of Preparation-H to Washington as there seems to be a huge epidemic of butthurt going on there.
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silverscarcat (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:28pm

Re: Re: Dammit!
You're quite welcome.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:44pm

bawwwwwwwww

*stomps feet and plugs ears
*is the US government.
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AmyEBarnes (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:44pm

Diplomacy or warfare?
It's ridiculous and pathetic that Obama does not see this as an opportunity to engage in critical discourse and diplomacy... unless there was indeed something ELSE he was afraid of.

What is NOT being said here is probably far more indicative of actual status between Russia and the USA. Hrm.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:46pm

Obama hates bad publicity with a passion. Given how the economic summit went with the publicity photos showing both Putin and Obama looking like to bored school boys during the photo shoot, I would suspect it is more the idea he can't look like a hero in the global communities eyes than it is Putin's actions in granting Snowden asylum.

Putin has done Obama a favor by making it a condition that Snowden can't keep releasing stuff while in Russia. But being the school yard bully, that doesn't work.

The US government, agencies, and executive branch have done more to embarrass themselves over this matter of what they are doing than all of Snowden's revelations. Snowden proved they were doing it with the evidence. Were they not spying on citizens, despite the Constitution outlines, there would be no issues here. Being caught with their fingers in the cookie jar doing what they know they are not supposed to do is what the real problem is. It is compounded by the showing of a lack of interest to own up to this and come clean.

That is what the real stink is over. Putin is just an excuse.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:58pm

Re: DC needs to send itself some FEMA aid...
Nope, they're merely rubbing Ben-Gay on their collective balls in the hope that the pain will go away.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 12:59pm

Re:
He is nominally the most powerful man on earth, and so he expects to get his own way all of the time. Not doing so gives lie to the proposition that he is the most powerful man on earth, hence the tantrum.
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Simple Mind (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 1:09pm

Re: Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
The problem with that petition is that for him to be pardoned he first has to be found guilty of doing something wrong. It should be something like:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/edward-snowden-is-a-hero
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 1:15pm

Re: Re: Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
Wrong. Nixon was pardoned by Ford as soon as he resigned for the very purpose of preventing the possibility of a trial.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2013 @ 2:23pm

Re: Re: DC needs to send itself some FEMA aid...
Pretty much.
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PRMan, 7 Aug 2013 @ 2:24pm

Re:
Actually, and somewhat ironically, Bush did what he thought was right regardless of how it looked and got blasted for it. Now, Obama is doing the wrong thing and trying to look good, but comes off looking like a schoolyard bully all the time.
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John Fenderson (profile), 7 Aug 2013 @ 3:31pm

Re: Re:
Bush did what he thought was right regardless of how it looked

I don't really know what Bush thought, but I was never under the impression that he was doing what he thought was right for the nation.

Regardless, Bush looked and acted exactly like a schoolyard bully.
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Anonymous, 7 Aug 2013 @ 4:25pm

Re:
But without The Ramones.
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PaulT (profile), 8 Aug 2013 @ 12:31am

Re: Re:
"Bush did what he thought was right regardless of how it looked and got blasted for it"

Usually because it was the wrong thing to be doing. Good intentions don't count for that much if the actions aren't right.
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Wally (profile), 8 Aug 2013 @ 5:56am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Dammit!
http://cheezburger.com/4853999616

Enjoy :-3
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Wally (profile), 8 Aug 2013 @ 5:58am

Re: Objectionable
Doesn't matter, he still canceled those human rights talking points because Russia granted Temporary Asylum to Snowden...this mean Obama doesn't care one iota.
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Simple Mind (profile), 8 Aug 2013 @ 9:16am

Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
Conceded.

However, everybody already knew Nixon did something wrong even before a trial.
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Damn Commie Constitutionalist, 9 Aug 2013 @ 9:09pm

Re: Re: Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
They did delete it. I should have grabbed a screen copy. It's gone. Sigh
130000++ before it disappeared.
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Really damned confused commie Constitutionalist, 9 Aug 2013 @ 9:28pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm suprised the whitehouse didn't delete this one.
ok, so that other link was to the wrong petition....

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

https:// petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recognize-edward-snowden-whistle-blower-and-guarantee-he-will-not- face-charges-his-acts-courage/m4pCqtjR
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