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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (64337)	6/23/2010 12:31:32 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217542

How to read the press: Compare the characterization of De Gaulle and Lula in the very same issue of The Economist. economist.com Lula’s adventure in Tehran smacks of the overconfidence of a politician who basks in an approval rating of over 70% and who sees the Iraq war and the financial crisis as having irreparably damaged American power and credibility. But the United States is still Brazil’s second-largest trading partner. Although some American and Brazilian officials are keen to prevent ill-will over Iran from spoiling co-operation in other areas, it nevertheless may do so. The United States Congress may be even less willing to support the elimination of a tariff on Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol, for example. Lula wants the UN reformed to reflect today’s world, with Brazil gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council. But by choosing to apply his views on how the world should be run to an issue of pressing concern to America and Europe, and in which Brazil has no obvious national interest, Lula may only have lessened the chances that he will get his way.

To: Snowshoe who wrote (64337)	6/23/2010 12:33:23 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217542

Now you can compare with the De Gaulle characterization: Still the same issue of The Economist economist.com Mr Fenby, who was in Reuters’ Paris bureau during de Gaulle’s presidency (and later was Paris correspondent for The Economist), traces de Gaulle’s career from his days as a student at the Saint-Cyr military academy to his decade as president during the turbulent 1960s. His personal characteristics were always those of honour, bravery and rectitude (even as president, de Gaulle and his beloved wife, Yvonne, paid for their own telephone calls). And the political thread remained unbroken: France’s greatness must never be slighted. When he found himself seated in the eighth row at John Kennedy’s funeral, he made his way forward to the front, said “Right, we can start,” to a startled protocol official—and sat down. The result was a France that secured a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, developed an independent nuclear deterrent, withdrew from NATO’s common military command and rebuffed Britain’s repeated attempts to join the European Common Market. If there were setbacks—overtures to Russia and China failed to thaw the cold war on terms that would reduce America’s influence and increase France’s—de Gaulle would simply dismiss them. If there were dissenting opinions from ministers and party politicians, de Gaulle would simply ignore them: after all, it was the French people, not the politicians, who had asked the general to lead them, and de Gaulle—a clever exponent of the referendum—would do so. UNQUOTE De Gaulle did qhat he though was right. Lula is doing what he thinks is right.