Putin to the White House — reason enough
Published 8:47 am Wednesday, August 1, 2018
By GLENN MOLLETTE
The buzz of a possible visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin has died down.
Different reasons have been cited from safety to timing to other things going on right now for President Trump and Putin.
I said on more than one occasion when Obama was president that he should invite Putin to the White House for dinner. I also said that about Kim Jong-un.
Putin nor Jong-un are not beloved by the American people. Americans, or our president, are not beloved by the North Koreans or the people of Russia. I don’t necessarily know this as gospel fact but I watch the media and read other articles and columns. I suspect it’s true.
Diplomacy is always a good move to try from any side of the aisle. I do hope our president will have Putin in the White House for dinner, play checkers, pitch horseshoes and treat him to a tour of the White House grounds or something like that.
On the other hand I am sure that CNN, NBC and the New York Times would have great fear over what the two men might talk about. Maybe, they would talk about how our two countries could work together to make our world a safer and better place? Maybe they might talk about world peace? Maybe they would talk about global energy issues, food shortages and helping all people around the globe to have happy productive lives? Who knows what world leaders try to talk about for sure? Maybe Putin would disclose to the president how much his Facebook advertisement budget would be for the next election? The way Facebook stock has fallen this week interested persons should keep an eye on Mark Zuckerberg. He may be meeting with Putin himself to rev up advertising accounts. When it comes to advertising, most media ventures seem to sell to anybody that wants to buy any kind of an advertisement for or against anybody. I have not noticed any television stations in any town in America refraining from running any kind of political advertisement that anyone wants to buy. Some political advertisements are ridiculous and should not be aired on television. The claims against opponents get more outlandish every year. Can you imagine what the advertisements are going to look like against Trump this next time?
What if a group from Haiti wanted to buy Facebook ads for or against a candidate? Or what if someone from France wanted to get involved in buying Facebook or other media advertisements? The media groups would sell them the space because they are all desperate to turn dollars. It’s a free country, at this point. I’m sure there are groups who might not sell an advertisement to the Pope if he wanted to buy one against Trump but who would that be?
OK, back to Putin’s lunch at the White House. Invite him to come and see how it goes. He’s not going to stay here. Bring Kim Jong-un and shoot some basketball with him. This will also mean an invite to Dennis Rodman to the White House. And why not? We are talking about peace and trying to get this world together in harmony before we destroy it and that’s reason enough.
(Dr. Glenn Mollette is the author of 12 books. His syndicated column is read in all 50 states.)