OPINION:
President Obama delivered an underwhelming speech to a less than enthusiastic, mandatory assemblage of Indian parliamentarians during his visit to India Monday (“Obama backs India for U.N.,” Page 1, Tuesday). Our president lauded all the things India has done to make the largest democracy in the world such a success. Ironically, these are the qualities he often eschews as America’s leader at home.
Throughout his address, the applause from that huge assemblage of Indian legislative and commercial leadership was tepid at best. The nodding heads propped up on forearms and the looks of contempt observed during the media’s panning shots of his audience said it all: “Yawn and ho-hum. Here’s the leader of a bankrupt nation, who dragged his caravan of straphangers, press, water carriers, commercial emissaries and a host of lesser diplomatic ’suitcases’ halfway around the world to lecture us on destiny.”
I yawned along with India, as America’s more than “accidental tourist” slowly read his impassionate salutations to Parliament from his teleprompter. Mr. Obama didn’t force Queen Elizabeth to listen to one of his long-winded talks; he simply gave her an iPod full of them and got out of town. Why couldn’t he be at least that kind to India?
K.J. DOLNEY
Columbia, S.C.
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