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The decision came after China stepped up a campaign urging nations to shun the Tibetan spiritual leader.

It means Mr Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991. The Buddhist monk arrived in Washington on Monday for a week of meetings with Congressional leaders, celebrity supporters and interest groups, but the president will not see him until after he has made his first visit to China next month.

Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has accused the United States and other Western nations of "appeasement" toward China as its economic weight grows.

"Today, economic interests are much greater than other interests," he said.

Mr Obama's decision dismayed human rights and Tibetan support groups, who said he had made an unnecessary concession to the Chinese, who regard the Dalai Lama as a "splittist", despite his calls for autonomy rather than independence for Tibet. The Chinese invaded in 1950, forcing the young leader to flee.

Sophie Richardson, Asia advocate for Human Rights Watch, said: "Presidents always meets the Dalai Lama and what happens? Absolutely nothing.

Col Hogan wrote:Blame it on Bush......




Wait a minute, he met with the Dalai Lama...

AZGrizFan wrote:Obama is toast in 2012.

D1B wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:Obama is toast in 2012.

This, coming from a guy who said "McDickhead could not have picked a better VP candidate than Sarah Palin!"

The gift that keeps on giving.....

Skjellyfetti wrote:Lose/Lose situation for Obama.

He either meets the Dalai Lama... right before a very important trip to China in November... or he snubs him...

He probably made the right decision... because, we don't really gain much by having the President meet with the Dalai Lama... but, there's A LOT to be gained from his trip to China.

Cleets Part 2 wrote:

D1B wrote:

This, coming from a guy who said "McDickhead could not have picked a better VP candidate than Sarah Palin!"

The gift that keeps on giving.....

That all might be true about AZ not having a clue about McSame...
but Obama is not exactly making me feel good these days... actually kind of embarrassing

in fact as embarrassing as Bush (but in a different way) but equally disturbing and sad

Ivytalk wrote: Really? Name one thing, from trade policy to currency support to human rights, that Prince Barry the Softouch can expect to bring home from China.

Skjellyfetti wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Really? Name one thing, from trade policy to currency support to human rights, that Prince Barry the Softouch can expect to bring home from China.

Sanctions on Iran.

Russia recently reversed its position of opposition to sanctions on Iran. That makes 4 out of the 5 countries in the UN with veto power in support of sanctions against Iran. If we could convince China to make a similar reversal it would be HUGE.

I'm not saying it will happen or that I expect it to happen... and I know that's what your question asked... But, I think this is the reasoning behind the "snub." Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama down the road, I'm sure.

AZGrizFan wrote: So we trade our morals for a political position. Beautiful.

Skjellyfetti wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote: So we trade our morals for a political position. Beautiful.

I'm not saying I like it... but, if we can make ground with China on Iran and avert Israel sparking a war in the next few months... I think it would be worth some "snub" that doesn't really mean anything.

AZGrizFan wrote:

Skjellyfetti wrote:
I'm not saying I like it... but, if we can make ground with China on Iran and avert Israel sparking a war in the next few months... I think it would be worth some "snub" that doesn't really mean anything.

Yeah, doesn't mean anything....I guess you can say that when your party doesn't run on a moral values platform, right? I mean, the Dali Lama represents an entire religion...I can see why that would be less important than sucking up to the country that basically owns us.

93henfan wrote:Bad move. Obama pats himself on the back for establishing diplomacy with Iran (after chastising Bush for snubbing them) and then pulls this shit. Is the Dalai Lama part of Obama's axis of evil? Completely unacceptable.

My opinion of Obama is plummeting of late. Sure, he inherited an economic shit sandwich from Bush, but I had counted on him getting the little things like this right while he slowly whittled away at fixing Bush's complete worldwide mess. He's failing so far.

If the Republicans can get a decent candidate in place by 2012, I'll be very receptive.

AZGrizFan wrote:

93henfan wrote:Bad move. Obama pats himself on the back for establishing diplomacy with Iran (after chastising Bush for snubbing them) and then pulls this shit. Is the Dalai Lama part of Obama's axis of evil? Completely unacceptable.

My opinion of Obama is plummeting of late. Sure, he inherited an economic shit sandwich from Bush, but I had counted on him getting the little things like this right while he slowly whittled away at fixing Bush's complete worldwide mess. He's failing so far.

If the Republicans can get a decent candidate in place by 2012, I'll be very receptive.

Boy, if that ain't the $64,000 question.

BlueHen86 wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
Boy, if that ain't the $64,000 question.

The republicans are so divided right now. I think Obama gets reelected in 2012, no matter what.