Cheeps and Chirps: Singapore summit edition

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
June 14, 2018

President Donald’s big summit, Twitter-style:

https://t.co/2d3XDKXja0 pic.twitter.com/xRWcXBepfk

— ((( Matt Milliken ))) (@memomoment) June 11, 2018

To my recollection, Obama never met Iranian leaders in the flesh. Imagine the pearl-clutching that would have taken place had he done so! https://t.co/HmCSP8w5iZ

— ((( Matt Milliken ))) (@memomoment) June 12, 2018

Regarding Sen. Rubio’s attempt to quit the race on a high note

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
March 19, 2016

On Tuesday night, I was surprised neither that U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio lost the Florida primary to businessman Donald Trump nor that he subsequently dropped out of the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination as a result.

As it happened, I caught Rubio’s concession speech while I was listening to National Public Radio primary election coverage in my car. He gave a good speech and he delivered it well; I can easily understand why some pundits thought that he would be Obama 2.0, a conservative political wunderkind who would energize American youth and minorities in a way no Republican presidential candidate has since — well, perhaps since Ronald Reagan… or maybe it’s more accurate to say in a way that no Republican presidential candidate ever has.

Unfortunately, as so often happens in politics, the lofty rhetoric of Rubio’s farewell speech didn’t match up very well with the cold, hard facts of reality. On Tuesday evening, Rubio said:

[T]his is the campaign we’ve run, a campaign that is realistic about the challenges we face but optimistic about the opportunities before us. A campaign that recognizes the difficulties we face, but also one that believes that we truly are on the verge of a new American century. And a campaign to be president, a campaign to be a president that would love all of the American people, even the ones that don’t love you back.

Compare that with a foreign-policy speech that Rubio delivered in New Hampshire in early January:

What became abundantly clear was this: Barack Obama was deliberately weakening America. He made an intentional effort to humble us back to size, as if to say, “We no longer need to be so powerful because our power has done more harm than good.”