Birds of a feather on the wrong side of history

Yo dude! You smell like hope.

Obama Among the Dictators (April)

I asked a former Eastern European dissident who spent time in prison under the Communists: “If you were sitting in a cell in Cuba, Iran or Syria and saw this photo of a smiling American president shaking hands with a smiling Hugo Chávez, what would you think?”  He said: “I would think that I was losing ground.”

Chavez: ‘Smell of Hope’ Has Replaced ‘Smell of Sulfur’ at U.N. (September)

“It doesn’t smell of sulfur here anymore,” Chavez said in a clear allusion to an earlier insult he foisted on former President George W. Bush from the same podium three years earlier.

“It smells of something else. It smells of hope,” he said, referencing Obama’s presidential campaign.

You're so awesome. I hope you're president forever.

Obama Shakes Hands with Gaddafi (July)

As Obama was shaking hands with Gaddafi, families of Pan Am 103 victims were gathered at the British Embassy in Washington and the British consulate in New York, speaking via video conference with Kenneth MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, and pleading that the convicted Lockerbie bomber not be returned to Libya.

Libyan leader praises President Obama, calls him ‘my son’ during rambling U.N. speech (September)

“We Africans are happy, proud, that a son of Africans governs the United States of America,” Qadhafi said. “Obama is a glimpse in the darkness after four or eight years…We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as president of the United States.”

Latin Dictators Castro, Zelaya & Chavez love Obama

Obama is On the Wrong Side of Honduras Coup (June)

I’m just not sure why this is so complicated for world leaders to understand, but Zelaya was attempting his own takeover of the government, and was thwarted by well meaning officials. He was trying to accomplish what Hugo Chavez had done in Venezuela.

Zelaya’s Message for Obama (August)

The president of Honduras dismissed the Obama administration’s promotion of the coup against him, but he is assured that there are right wing voices in the United States that support it, identified as “affluent sectors that oppose social processes.”

“I believe Obama is trying to be strong; he is conquering the space, but he has to be given time,” he said, although he also snuck in that “the time that the coup lasts hurts the image of the government [of the United States] that speaks of democracy.”

Feelings mutual I'm sure

Obama ready to end Cuba embargo (April)

Obama’s calibrated messages to Havana have already provoked a positive reaction. Ailing 82-year-old Fidel Castro, the communist dictator of the island for almost half a century, asked three visiting members of the Congressional Black Caucus, “How can we help President Obama?”

Fidel Castro praises Obama on climate change (September)

That admission of America’s past errors “was without a doubt a brave gesture,” Castro wrote in comments published by Cuban state-media Wednesday.

“It would only be fair to recognize that no other United States president would have had the courage to say what he said,” the former Cuban leader continued.