Vocal inflection is important

I don't mean to always be defending Obama in these posts - believe me I am not a fan of Obama for the most part, and sincerely hope he'll be a one-term president, but sometimes I just have to come down on the side of logic and common sense, when something unfair is being said.

Or in this case, might be being said.

Last week, President Sarkozy of France apparently said on open mic that he was sick of Netanyahu of Israel and called him a liar. Obama then apparently said, "You're sick of him but I have to work with him every day."

Now, the mic was on in the sense that it was broadcasting to the rest of the room, but nothing was being recorded, so we don't know the tone of voice in which Obama made his remark.

He may have been agreeing with Sarkozy, certainly, or he may have been gently chastizing the French president, saying, "Hey, I have to work with him every day." as in "Don't criticize the guy, I have to work with him."

That happens sometimes - you and a colleague with whom you want to maintain a good relationship are talkng, the colleague says something you don't like, in religious or racial terms, you don't want to come right out and call him an idiot, but you try to imply that you haven't liked what he just said and not to say it again. (A strategy that never works, in my experience, but I know people try it.)

That may be what happened in this case. Without a recording to enable us to analyze body posture and tone of voice, we'll never know.

But Obama certainly was dismissive of Israeli diplomats a few months ago, eh, shutting them in a room and leaving them to go do something else - talk about rude!
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