Manufactured?

So says Robert Gibbs to the press today when asked about the outbursts of patriotic dissent at town halls. You want manufactured, Mr. Gibbs? I got yer manufactured right here..



Unless the above is actually a picture of the first known alien with Clinton standing in his spaceship, this is about as manufactured as it gets.

Don't get me wrong, it's great he got the two hostages released, both of whom had been largely forgotten in the media. But reasonable people can have questions, such as what we gave up for their release? The only reason they were captured was to get something in trade, and it's doubtful a public apology was all Kim wanted.

As to Clinton, was he given special envoy status? Does a former president, as a private citizen, have any official authority to negotiate on behalf of the government? Wouldn't his charming wife have had to crowned him, or deputized him, or something? And if he did negotiate, does it count? This CNN story quote from Pyongyang suggests he did just that:

"The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them."

Yet before Gibbs smeared the protesters he told the press that Bubba was on a 'solely private mission', suggesting he had no authority. Quick, which source is more believable? Keep in mind there were no government officials in Clinton's party.

This is probably a sign that realpolitik is back in style. It's highly likely Slick had nothing but star power here and the whole thing was pre-arranged (as the Times of London said), meaning he was there to remove Obama from any apology while passing along info. Clinton gets some extra international cred, Kim gets the image of more international muscle, and Obama gets a problem partially solved without showing up.

But it seems a bit strange for Bill Clinton to be making a surprise visit to North Korea on the very same day his wife left on a major African trip today (starting with Kenya). Was this done for security reasons? Surely it wasn't Bill trying to upstage honeybunch. Surely.

Finally, CNN mentioned Hillary's prospective meeting with Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Kenya but totally blanked out on Obama's own dubious past with this guy several years ago. When considering Obama's bro shake with Chavez, their position on Honduras, Gibbs' statement about Ahmadinejad being the elected leader of Iran, and this North Korean stunt perhaps Obama's past dealing with Odinga makes sense.