On Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama danced the tango at a state dinner in Argentina. By the next morning, a bipartisan chorus of disapproval of the optics was bursting out on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Obama should not have canceled his trip to Argentina after the attacks in Brussels, said Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, but his recent photo op at a baseball game in Cuba and his tango left much to be desired.
“Argentina is actually one of the very rare good news stories in the world,” Haass said, referring to the government’s transition from former President Cristina Kirchner. “You have a new democratic government. They’re doing the right things economically, they’re doing the right things politically. It’s a good story.”
“However, the advance person who let him do the tango, that person ought to be looking for work on somebody’s — in somebody’s campaign very, very far away,” Haass remarked. “That was a tremendous mistake. It’s fine to go to Argentina, you want to do the work, but you’ve got to be careful of these little photo ops and optics. Baseball games and tangos, that’s inconsistent with the seriousness of the day.”
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Obama should not have canceled his trip to Argentina after the attacks in Brussels, said Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, but his recent photo op at a baseball game in Cuba and his tango left much to be desired.
The Bensleygram 