25.5.11

Barack Obama's UK visit - Ireland



PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: “My name is Barack Obama -- of the Moneygall Obamas. And I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way.” 

By most accounts -- President Barack Obama’s visit to Ireland was a success.
Reports say -- America’s Commander in Chief received a warm Irish welcome everywhere he went.

He made a stop in Moneygall, Ireland, where great-great-great grandfather lived -- and visited a pub to enjoy some Guinness beer with the First Lady. (Video:
CBS)

But some analysts are suggesting -- the president’s emphasis on his Irish roots -- is a political ploy.
 
A writer for the Irish Independent says... “His popularity is likely to soar among the Irish-American vote in the US...”

Mr. Obama isn’t the first president to visit the Emerald Isle just before an election year -- he’s the sixth.

“He follows in the footsteps of Kennedy, Nixon, Reagon, Clinton, and George W. Bush.”(
CBS)A blogger for UK’s the Telegraph calls it “naked electioneering,” and says -- it’s unlikely to be successful.

“Barack Obama is no more O’Bama than I am O’Done. And the Irish know it. … They know it’s not their smiling eyes he’s visiting for – but for the [more than 35 million] Americans who claim Irish roots. … Irish-Americans are numerous in precisely those states, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, that often prove to be decisive during presidential elections.”
But a blogger for NPR thinks the visit will appeal to white America -- not just those with Irish heritage.

“For those voters who are still uncomfortable, even on a subconscious level, with the president's race, the reminder of his white parentage could be enough to allow them to give him more benefit of the doubt. The story of Obama's Irish connection is Obama's message to those voters that he ‘gets’ them...”

Finally --
the founder and president of US-Ireland Alliance writes in the Huffington Post -- all this talk of appealing to a certain demographic is ridiculous.

“The proverbial white guy in rural Pennsylvania ... will make up his mind about Obama … because of the economy, Social Security, Medicare, ... and several other factors. You could count on one hand the number of people who would vote for the President on the basis of his stopping in Ireland for less than 24 hours.”



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