Schumer's Description of Putin Might Match… Obama

Sunday, on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) described Vladamir Putin in terms that are hilariously akin to Barack Obama. Schumer was answering host Bob Schieffer’s questions regarding Putin giving Edward Snowden when he said,

I would urge the president to cancel the bilateral summit he’s having with Mr. Putin. President Putin is behaving like a schoolyard bully.

That sounds familiar.

Schumer continued by urging Obama to eschew meeting with Putin:

In my experience I’ve learned unless you stand up to that bully, they ask for more and more and more, and he’s always going out of his way, President Putin is, to seem to poke us in the eye, whether it’s in Iran, and Syria, now with Snowden. So I would urge the president not to go forward with the bilateral meeting next month; that would give Putin the kind of respect he doesn’t deserve at this point in time. I’d also urge the president to try to urge our allies, if it were possible, to move the G-20 summit away from St Petersburg. Some of them may not want to do that; the G-20’s summit’s important, but certainly on our own end, for the president to meet with Putin in a one on one meeting later this month would give him respect he doesn’t deserve after all he’s done.

Schieffer asked, “Why do you think Putin did this, I mean, this has kind of a high school kind of scenario to it…do you think this was a calculated strategy on his part?

Look, I think that President Putin feel the loss of Russian power, certainly since the end of the Cold war, keenly, being an old KGB officer, and he’s trying to build it back up. The trouble is, the way he’s trying to build it back up is not by strengthening the economy or making Russia more free or robust place, he persecutes all his political opponents, but rather by sort of stepping on our back.

Need we mention the poor U.S. economy or the IRS  targeting conservatives?

Schumer added:

You know, there’s always somebody in any group, whether it’s a business, social organization or religious organization, who can get a lot of attention by making trouble even though the common good goes in the other direction . . .

Need we mention Obama fanning the fires of the racial divide time after time?

Schumer concluded:

. . . and Putin seems to want to build himself up in the negative ways, not the positive ways that a leader often does. I think that’s his motivation. In the long run, that doesn’t succeed, but in the short run, by standing up to him and showing him that those kinds of as you say sometimes puerile actions should have consequences, makes sense, and that’s why I think we shouldn’t go forward with a bilateral summit.

Standing up to the leader’s puerile actions. Can you say Tea Party?