“[Hugo Chavez] presented the US leader with a book – a tome chronicling 500 years of European and American exploitation of Latin America.
Obama refused to interpret the gift as baiting, quipping later: “It was a nice gesture to give me a book, I’m a reader.”
That determination to bury old antagonisms was also present when Obama responded disarmingly to an hour-long opening speech by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, in which the former leftist revolutionary reviewed US action against Cuba including the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. “I’m grateful President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old,” he told chuckling leaders.”
Thank you, Mr. President, for standing up for the reputations of our nation and people against those mass murderering thugs. I sleep much better at night knowing that you areout there burnishing our national reputation and standing up to tyrants and oppressors.
