March 14, 2018
By: Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
India's having a tough year. In fact, that country called and asked us to keep people from our side of the world, out of their side of the world.
Like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hillary Clinton.
It's not that India is against tourists, but the tourists they've been ending up with are high profile ones with either bad wardrobe choices, or big mouths.
In February, Prime Minister Trudeau stepped off the plane with his family, and in a twinkling of an eye, all of them were outfitted, head to toe, in Indian "costumes" suitable for a Bollywood flick.
Distressingly enough, when Trudeau met with a real Indian movie star, Shah Rukh, Rukh was dressed modestly in a tailored black suit, while Trudeau was decked out in solid gold.
But that's just Justin. He likes playing dress up. Like wearing Muslim garb while participating in Ramadan prayers at a mosque in British Columbia. Wearing a Sikh head scarf during a Sikh festival. And donning the traditional shirt of the Philippines while attending the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative Summit.
But it was the dinner invitation Trudeau extended to Jaspal Atwal, a Sikh extremist, that made problems for him. Atwal was convicted of attempting to murder an Indian politician in 1986.
Oops.
That faux paux resulted in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi avoiding Trudeau for about a week.
Trudeau apologized for the Sikh extremist thing, but was seemingly politically unaware that former Indian leader Indira Gandhi had been assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.
That's wasn't a good move on Trudeau's part. But at least he managed to stay squarely on his feet during his visit. Not so for Hillary.
This past week Hillary Clinton tumbled her way through India, head over tea kettle, while plugging her book, "What Happened."
Dressed in a long tunic top, Chappaqua-Chardonnay-Matron straw bonnet, and Birkenstocks, her shoes were sensible, but weren't enough to keep the former presidential candidate on her pins.
She fell while descending the steps at Jahaj Haha Palace, this time spraining a wrist. Back in October 2017 while on a London book tour, she fell down some stairs and broke her toe.
We'll leave it to the Canadians to be embarrassed by Trudeau's behavior, and to us to cringe at Hillary's. The same way we did when Obama went on his many Apology Tours.
What is it with these two? They no sooner get beyond the city limits and they start badmouthing their country and its leaders.
Yes, it was Hillary's interview with India Today's editor-in-chief Aroon Purie at the India Today Conclave 2018 in Mambai that was definitely cringe-worthy.
Clinton discussed her book. Explaining. Once again. Why she lost the election. But this time she had some memorable comments to add.
She claimed Trump's message to voters was, "You know, you don't like black people getting rights. You don't like women, you know, getting jobs. You don't want, you know, to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are."
You know?
Poor woman.
"If you remember," Clinton told the audience, "Trump started his campaign attacking immigrants."
No he didn't, Hillary. Even her Indian audience had to know Trump always referred to "illegal" immigrants. Comments like that only served to underscore why she lost the election, even with Purie introducing her as "Should-Be-President."
Poor sap.
As a former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State, you'd think she'd have more class. But she doesn't.
And nothing stopped a Former President from doing his Cry Baby Tour last year, when Obama childishly dogged President Trump's footsteps, stalking him through Germany, France and China, making it painfully clear that neither he nor Hillary can accept that Donald Trump is president. And they're not.
Even now, a year-and-a-half into the Trump presidency, neither Hillary nor Obama will voluntarily retreat from center stage. Not ever.
While in Germany, and not for the first time, Obama sarcastically criticized Trump's policies, this time immigration, while managing to avoid ever saying Trump's name.
"In the eyes of God, a child on the other side of the border is no less worthy of love and compassion than my own child," he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself an enthusiastic supporter of open borders for her own country, a tact which has resulted in soaring crime rates there and across Europe.
But Obama has always been a big fan of Obama, and of reminding us that he is a man "Out Standing in His Field."
Now, after seeing his official presidential portrait, painted by Kehinde Wiley, that certainly seems to be true.
Hold the line, America.