Friedman: “Show Us The Money”

November 10, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under International Affairs, Obama administration 

Thomas Friedman:

President Bush, because he was so easily demonized, made being a free-rider on American power easy for everyone — and Americans paid the price. Obama will not make it so easy.

So to everyone overseas I say: thanks for your applause for our new president. I’m glad you all feel that America “is back.” If you want Obama to succeed, though, don’t just show us the love, show us the money. Show us the troops. Show us the diplomatic effort. Show us the economic partnership. Show us something more than a fresh smile. Because freedom is not free and your excuse for doing less than you could is leaving town in January.

Hat tip to Salem Radio’s Dennis Prager, who called the column  a moment of almost perfect clarity. I was befuddled when Friedman’s New York Times colleague Nicholas Kristof wrote a couple of weeks ago about how wonderful if it would be if foreigners liked our President. It usually seems that leaders act out of their nations’ interests instead of out of sentimentality. But maybe that’s wrong. As Prager noted on his talk show this morning, we now have a laboratory for a definitive test.

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