Ted Williams:The greatest hitter who ever lived

Je mentionnais hier le record de Joe Dimaggio. J'ajoute aujourd'hui celui d'un joueur dont l'histoire m'inspire grandement. Ce record est celui de Ted Williams des Red Sox... Il est de dernier frappeur à maintenir une moyenne de plus de .400 (.406) pour une saison. La veille de la dernière journée de la saison 1941, Williams frappait pour .400 et lui offrait la possibilité de ne pas participer au programme du lendemain pour maintenir sa moyenne. Ted Williams refusa et frappa six coups sûrs en huit présences au bâton contre les Phllies pour terminer à .406. Wlliams a gagné deux titres de jouer le plus utile, deux triples couronnes (meilleur pour la moyenne, les circuits et les points produits) et dix-neuf participations au match des étoiles. Sa moyenne en carrière est de .344 avec 521 circuits (dont au moins un de 600 peids...).

À ses exploits sur le terrain on peut ajouter ceux de pilote de chasse pendant la Deuxième Guerre et la guerre de Corée. Williams était en mesure d'éviter le combat, mais il insista pour s'impliquer. Non seulement ses résultats académiques pendant sa formation étaient de loin supérieurs à la moyenne, il était également un tireur précis et ses réflexes étaient hors du commun. S'il fut libéré de l'armée avant de combattre après Pearl Harbor, il participa à 39 missions de combat en Corée.

Williams supporta également la lutte contre le cancer par le biais du Jimmy fund, organisme relié au Dana-Farber Cancer Institute qui vient en aide aux enfants (Williams les appréciait tout particulièrement) atteint de cette maladie. J'ai laissé une photo de la statue de Williams qui commémore ce soutien.

J'allais oublier! Williams et Dimaggio aurait pu être échangés l'un contre l'autre, mais la transaction a avorté à la dernière minute...

'Sky is the limit' for this year's Red Sox squad

Tout est possible en avril... (portion de l'article de Ian Browne sur MLB)

Ever since that frenzied 72-hour period back in December when general manager Theo Epstein traded for Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford, anticipation has engulfed Red Sox Nation.
So now the mission for the Red Sox comes down to this: Living up to the hype.

"That's the game plan, that's the goal," said second baseman Dustin Pedroia. "We want to go out there and work as hard as we can to be the best team we can be. We have to make sure that all of us are unselfish and play the game the right way." And before assuming that the enormous expectations surrounding this team have all been a media creation, consider that it was right-hander Josh Beckett who said multiple times during Spring Training that a 100-win season was a goal. The last Sox team to reach triple-digits in wins was the 1946 edition, led by Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.

More than a half-century later, this group, which boasts 16 players who have been All-Stars, has the potential to be a similar juggernaut. While the players are aware of the expectations, they aren't trying to hide from them. In fact, they seem to relish the chance to live up to the hype.
"Sky is the limit," said Crawford. "We can go a long way if we play to our abilities. We have big goals for this season." Crawford played for an AL champion, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays. But he doesn't know what it feels like to be the World

Obama: le coach!

Caricature Kadhafi: poisson d'avril!!!!!

Play ball! Une suggestion de documentaire...

L'historien en moi ne peut s'empêcher de vous suggérer la série Baseball de Ken Burns. Beaucoup plus que du sport! Ken Burns maîtrise l'art de replacer son sujet dans le contexte de son époque. Pour vous mettre dans l'ambiance.

Pour ma part, l'arrivée du mois d'avril et le début de la fonte des neiges ont toujours été associés au baseball. Le début de la saison dans les majeures coïncidait avec des rues un peu plus dégagées où on pourrait s'étirer le bras, huiler son nouveau gant et se remettre au jogging avant le début des activités officielles de ma propre saison de baseball. Combien de joueurs mes amis et moi avons-nous imité à cette période de l'année? Un nombre incalculable!

J'aime que le baseball soit un sport de traditions. Les règles évoluent peu et très lentement, ce qui ne me déplaît pas. Une des plus vieilles traditions est celle du "seventh inning stretch", ce moment où les spectateurs peuvent se délier les muscles, prendre une marche ou acheter une dernière consommation. Les origines de cette pratique sont lointaines et il est difficile d'arrêter une date précise. Alors j'ai retenu mon anecdote à moi (absolument rien de scientifique!). La pratique se serait développée après que le Président William Taft (en 1910) se soit levé à la septième manche. Comme le "commandant en chef" se levait, tout son entourage aurait fait la même chose... Le célèbre "take me out to the ball game" qu'on entonne pendant la pause est centenaire et Harry Caray, célèbre commentateur de Chicago, a grandement contribué à populariser le chant. Je salue au passage Pierre-Yves Lord et Charles Auger avec qui j'ai assisté à un match des Cubs au Wrigley Field. Nous avions enregistré le "take me out" avant de le rediffuser à la radio dans une entrevue le lendemain matin!

Je vous laisse une interprétation "classique" de Caray: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo9fEADUqPs


Pour les fans des Red Sox, je rappelle cette tradition toute bostonnaise de la huitième manche. Comment ignorer l'interprétation de "Sweet Caroline"? J'ai retenu une "version dans la foule" pendant la deuxième partie de la Série mondiale 2007 (remportée par les Sox). Juste pour l'ambiance...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PxHqMEcSuQ&feature=related

Kadhafi doit partir! Mais où?

Un angle intéressant... Kadhafi s'accroche en attendant une "destination"...

Even before Saddam's capture -- within days of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, in fact -- Gaddafi took steps to forestall the very situation he now finds himself in: facing NATO warplanes and Western demands that he relinquish power. At Gaddafi's direction, Libyan functionaries approached British and American officials with a stunning offer: the regime in Tripoli was voluntarily dismantling its chemical and nuclear weapons programs.

Foreign policy veterans who had worked in Democratic administrations expressed skepticism that this overture was related to the U.S. invasion, but Gaddafi apparently informed old Silvio Berlusconi otherwise. "I saw what happened in Iraq," Gaddafi reportedly told Italy's prime minister, "and I was afraid."

And so, Gaddafi gave up his WMD, and the Bush administration restored diplomatic relations with Libya, whose leader was no longer portrayed, in Ronald Reagan's memorable phrase, as the "mad dog of the Middle East." He had avoided Saddam's fate -- until now.

"Muammar Gaddafi clearly lost the confidence of his own people and the legitimacy to lead," President Obama said in a televised address 10 days after NATO airstrikes began targeting Gaddafi's troops. In London one day later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed those words -- and amplified on them: "Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead, so we believe he must go. We're working with the international community to try to achieve that outcome." German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle chimed in, too: "One thing is quite clear and has to be made very clear to Gaddafi: His time is over. He must go."

But these demands beg the central question. Sure, it's easy enough to say he must go. But go where?

Sur le site de Real Clear Politics:http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/03/31/gaddafi_must_go__but_where_109406.html

Caricature Libye: OTAN et Union européenne...

Caricature Japon: même Blanche-neige a des doutes...

Difficile de jouer la carte de l'humour à la suite des catastrophes au Japon... Plutôt habile...

Caricature États-Unis: négociations au Congrès

Michele Bachmann: Lady Baba!

Caricature état des routes: nous ne sommes plus seuls

Caricature Libye: l'Oncle Sam ne tombe pas dans le piège...

Avortement: la "cible" des républicains...

J'ai mentionné à plusieurs reprises les efforts des républicains pour retreindre l'accès à l'avortement... L'utilisation du symbole de la cible réfère à un autre triste épisode...

Clin d'oeil avant le "play ball" officiel

La saison de baseball débute demain et, malheureusement, les détails sordides entourant la consommation de produits dopants par Barry Bonds gâchent un peu mon début de campagne. Bons est le détenteur du record pour le nombre de circuit, un exploit qui perd de sa valeur à la lumière des derniers aveux (il reconnaît avoir consommé... Sans le savoir!).

Je préfère donc me tourner vers un record vieux de 70 ans, celui pour la séquence de matchs avec au moins un coup sûr de Joe Dimaggio. 56 matchs!!! Il faudra plus que des stéroïdes pour approcher cette marque... Je rappelle au passage que le "Yankee clipper" a reporté dix championnats avec le Yankees, neuf séries mondiales, trois titres de joueurs le plus utile à son équipe en plus d'être sélectionné sur l'équipe d'étoiles à chacune de ses treize saisons... Comme quoi même le fan des Red Sox que je suis est en mesure re connaître la valeur d'un "rival".

Herman Cain: un nouveau candidat républicain et un deuxième président noir?

Ce serait intéressant de voir Cain en découdre avec les autres républicains et, ultimement, avec le Président Obama. Un peu trop "collé" au Tea Party selon moi... On verra.

Pour l'instant, il devra récupérer une déclaration malheureuse au sujet d'éventuelles nominations de musulmans dans son cabinet...

Deux extraits de l'article sur le Huffington post:

1. Herman Cain gives a great speech. But some conservatives think the longshot run for president by the black Republican former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio host will amount to more than just talk, particularly in Iowa.

"I think Herman Cain will surprise some people," said Ben Domenech, a conservative blogger and research fellow with the Heartland Institute.

Cain has been working hard at connecting with Tea Party activists in Iowa, a state whose caucuses play a crucial role in the nomination process because they mark the first vote on the party's choice. Grassroots conservatives in Des Moines say Cain met with about 30 of them in July and has been back to the state numerous times since then.

2. La gestion de la déclaration: However, at the same moment that Cain is picking up momentum, he is dealing with the first real blowup of his campaign -- forced to backtrack this week after telling The Huffington Post and other reporters in Iowa on Saturday that he would not feel comfortable appointing a Muslim to his Cabinet or to a judgeship.

Following a wave of outraged comments, including some from fellow conservatives, Cain's staff said he would not discriminate against anyone in his administration based on faith or race, in accordance with the Constitution.

Plus loin, sa déclaration:Yet while his plainspokenness can be an asset, it is Cain's penchant for speaking his mind that landed him in some hot water this week. He was asked Saturday if he would feel comfortable appointing a Muslim to his Cabinet or to a federal judgeship.

"I will not," he said. "And here's why. There is this creeping attempt, this attempt, to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government," Cain said. "It does not belong in our government. This is what happened to Europe. And little by little, to try to be politically correct, they made this little change. They made this little change. And now they've got a social problem that they don't know what to do with hardly."

L'article au complet: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/30/herman-cain-2012-republican-primary-sneak_n_842537.html

Un conseiller fait remarquer, avec sagesse, qu'il devra apprendre...

"He's going to need to learn over time how to address controversial issues," said Colin Hanna, president of the conservative group Let Freedom Ring, who nonetheless said he is firmly backing Cain's candidacy.

Dire qu'on reproche à Obama d'attendre et de réfléchir trop longtemps avant de se prononcer...

Obama a autorisé l'aide aux rebelles...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter.

Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA and the White House declined immediate comment.

News that Obama had given the authorization surfaced as the President and other U.S. and allied officials spoke openly about the possibility of sending arms supplies to Gaddafi's opponents, who are fighting better-equipped government forces.

La suite sur le site du Huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/30/obama--secret-order-libya-signed-rebel-support_n_842734.html

RadioShack Montana: coupon pour arme gratuite!

Entente sur le budget: un "goverment shutdown" le 8 avril?

On ne pourra étirer le débat encore bien longtemps... Bel article dans le Huffington post sur ce qu'implique un échec des négociations au Congrès.

"An extended federal government shutdown could devastate the U.S. economy by dealing a blow to Americans' confidence, experts said Tuesday.

If lawmakers cannot reach agreement on a bill to fund the government by April 8, a broad array of federal programs will come to a halt. Although most shutdown plans remain classified, during the last major federal government shutdown in 1995, certain health services were shut down. Court cases were delayed. And federal workers were furloughed. This time around, some fear low-income families will miss crucial government payments. But there is another consequence that could make all of those challenges far worse: The economy could slip back into recession."

La suite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/29/government-shutdown-economy_n_842262.html

Sondages Gallup: Obama toujours un leader fort...

Des chiffres à la baisse depuis l'an dernier, mais tout de même positifs malgré la "tourmente"...

Caricature Libye: interventions militaires et équilibre budgétaire

Caricature Libye: unité de la coalition

Côte d'Ivoire: les limites de la doctrine Obama?

Candidature candidats républicains: deuxième partie!

Caricature candidats républicains: la lettre écarlate!

J'adore!!!!! Référence à cette lettre de la honte que devaient porter les puritains qui confessaient publiquement leur crime...

À mon humble avis, les républicains n'ont pas encore de candidat solide pour l'élection de 2012 parce qu'ils sont actuellement trop divisés... Le poids du Tea party est important...

Caricature Kadhafi: la promesse d'Obama...

Caricature: politique étrnagère américaine...

Caricature Libye: aide financière discutable?

Caricature Libye: les aléas de l'opinion publique...

Caricature Libye: police internationale...

Marco Rubio: non à la présidence en 2012...

J'ai déjà mentionné le nom de Rubio à plusieurs reprises dans mon carnet web. Il a annoncé (ou plutôt répété...) qu'il ne sera pas candidat pour l'investiture républicaine. Dommage pour les républicains car ce sont des candidats comme Rubio qui représentent l'avenir du GOP. Appuyé par le Tea party, tout en maintenant une saine distance, Rubio pourrait être tenté par la vice-présidence. Comme l'élection de 2012 risque d'être difficile et qu'Obama a encore un léger avantage, je crois cependant qu'il gagnerait à attendre 2016, ce qui lui permettrait de prendre de l'expérience, de se trouver des appuis solides et d'avoir un contexte probablement plus "ouvert" en 2016. Il est plutôt rare de donner un troisèime mandat présidentiel au même parti...

"“I just got elected three months ago,” Rubio said in an interview with ABC News, released in part on Tuesday morning. “So how can I be a full-time United States senator if my eye’s already on something else?”

“Even speculating about it is problematic, because when you speculate about it what you’re basically saying is, I’m thinking about something other than the job that I have before me,” he said. But Rubio didn’t rule out being considered as the vice presidential running-mate for the eventual 2012 GOP presidential candidate. Some observers think he would be a smart pick, drawing in Hispanic voters, who in large part lean Democratic.

Rubio began his burst back into the public eye two weeks ago with radio interviews with Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, and a return from a Twitter hiatus that began in late October. And Rush Limbaugh, the king of conservative talkers, said he wanted to see Rubio in the White House. “I wish the damn guy … would run for president,” he said in mid-March."


Un article sur le site de Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52117.html

Caricature Proche-Orient: ouf...

Caricature: textos au volant, trouvez les erreurs...

Caricature Libye: Obama et les "autres nations"...

President focuses on needs of Latino students in town hall meeting

En complément de la dernière caricature...

President Barack Obama took to the Spanish-language network airwaves Monday to discuss challenges in educating Hispanics students.
In a Univision-sponsored town hall meeting with Hispanic students and educators at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, the president said to out-educate and out-innovate the global competition, the Latino community must play a key role in the future.
"Our workforce is going to be more diverse; it is going to be, to a large percentage, Latino. And if our young people are not getting the kind of education they need, we won't succeed as a nation," Obama said.
With several students and parents asking questions about immigration and deportations, Obama said the answer wouldn't be overnight. He hoped the DREAM Act, which would give kids who have grown up in the United States an opportunity to earn citizenship despite their family's immigration status, would be passed in the future.
"We didn't get it passed this time, but I don't want young people to be giving up because if people in the past had given up, we probably wouldn't have women's rights, we wouldn't have civil rights. So many changes that we've made had to do with young people being willing to struggle and fight to make sure that their voices are heard," said Obama.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/27/obama.hispanics/index.html

Caricatures États-Unis: apports des hispanophones

Coup de coeur!

Cases Of Shaken Manchild Syndrome On The Rise: il faut croire The Onion!

Cases Of Shaken Manchild Syndrome On The Rise

Malgré la pub "touchante" de Ben Stiller, le nombre de cas augmente! Tordant...

Un serpent s'échappe du Zoo du Bronx...

Ce type de serpent peut tuer un humain en 15 minutes... La caricature est un choix un brin démagogique, mais c'était difficile de résister!

"It may take days or even weeks to find a venomous Egyptian cobra that has gone missing from New York's Bronx Zoo, officials say.
But staffers hold out hope that the 20-inch, pencil-thin snake is hiding out somewhere in the zoo's reptile house and will surface when her "comfort level rises."
"Our best strategy is patience, allowing her time to come out of hiding," said zoo director Jim Breheny.
"We understand the interest in this story and that everyone wants us to find the missing snake. Right now, it's the snake's game," Breheny said in a statement posted on the zoo's website Monday.
The zoo learned the adolescent Egyptian cobra was missing from an off-exhibit enclosure Saturday. Staff members closed and secured the reptile house. Daily sweeps continue."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/29/new.york.missing.cobra/index.html

Maine: débat autour de la relocalisation d'une fresque

Le gouverneur du Maine est républicain... Cette décision ne m'apparaît pas stratégique au moment où d'autres gouverneurs attaquent les "acquis" des syndicats. Je ne me prononce pas sur le bien-fondé de ces luttes, mais je crois que le gouverneur du Maine pouvait attendre un moment plus opportun pour procéder au changement... En multipliant les "attaques", les républicains risquent de faire le jeu des démocrates pour 2012...

"Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage followed through with his decision to remove a mural depicting the history of the workers' movement from the lobby of the state's Department of Labor, a spokeswoman said Monday.
"The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue," said LePage press secretary Adrienne Bennett in a prepared statement. "We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand."
The controversy over the 36-foot-long, 11-panel mural erupted last week when a LePage administration official announced that the artwork would be removed and that conference rooms dedicated to American labor movement icons would be renamed.
Administration officials said the change was needed to reflect a new image for the department, one not tilted toward organized labor. They said visitors to the lobby had complained that the mural is anti-business."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/28/maine.mural.removed/index.html

Pendant ce temps en Arabie saoudite...

Les femmes n'iront pas voter...

Women in Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to vote in the long-delayed municipal elections to be held in September, the election commission said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia announced last week it will hold the elections, in the first political concession since protests sweeping the region reached the kingdom.

"There is nothing to stop the participation of the woman but this needs some preparations and we cannot make these preparations in all regions of the kingdom," the commission said in a statement.

Voter registration opens on April 23 and the elections will be held on September 22, an official at the commission told Reuters.

The Gulf Arab state is a monarchy ruled by the al-Saud family in alliance with clerics from the strict Wahhabi school of Islam. Women must be covered from head to toe in public and are not allowed to drive.

Saudi women are also subject to a male "guardianship" system which requires they show permission from their guardian -- father, brother or husband -- to travel or, sometimes, work.

Pour la suite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/saudi-women-vote-ban_n_841711.html

Discours d'Obama: des doutes légitimes dans le Chicago Trinune

Hier soir je me demandais comment le Président américain définirait le succès de l'intervention limitée en Libye et comment il procéderait pour retirer les forces américaines. Un éditorial du Chicago Tribune de ce matin s'interroge également à ce propos. On ajoute une autre réflexion majeure: si nous agissons pour une cause humanitaire en Libye, on nous demandera d'intervenir ailleurs... Comment décider ce qui nécessite une intervention?

"That raises a couple of important questions: How does the president define success, and how much is he resolved to do to achieve it? He didn't address that issue — preferring to assume that the great bulk of the mission has already been accomplished and that our allies will do the rest.

Obama complicated matters by demanding Gadhafi's departure. That means the dictator will be in a position to declare victory if he merely survives. And since the president, thankfully, emphatically ruled out the use of ground forces in Libya, Gadhafi has a good chance of surviving.

Again, though, the president took refuge in what you might call the audacity of hope. "History is not on his side," Obama insisted. "With the time and space that we have provided for the Libyan people, they will be able to determine their own destiny, and that is how it should be." But Obama didn't say what will happen if he's wrong.

Another question: How and when will the United States be able to end its involvement in this war? Asked if the mission would conclude by year's end, Gates said, "I don't think anybody knows the answer to that." The longer it lasts, the higher the expense and the greater the chance the U.S. will be pulled in deeper.

The humanitarian mission, meanwhile, sets a precedent that will be used to demand American involvement in other places. After the Syrian government killed dozens of people in crushing protests, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., suggested outside military intervention to protect civilians and remove dictator Bashar Assad.

Do the president and his team have a coherent set of views that provide a principled basis for how to handle the next crisis, and the one after that? Or are they merely indulging gut impulses, without appreciating how their decisions will play out today and tomorrow? Big questions, not answered."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-libya-20110328,0,5037169.story

Caricature Obama: le jongleur

Kadhafi: résistance à la No fly zone?

Caricature Kadhafi: King Kong Kadhafi!

Caricature Libye-États-Unis: Obama mission accomplished

Donald Trump Birth Certificate Released By Potential Presidential Candidate

Et il prétend être un candidat sérieux!!!! Le certificat de naissance d'Obama a été disponible en ligne et les autorités compétentes d'Hawaï reconnaissent la légitimité du document.

Vous excuserez cet écart d'une certaine réserve, mais la candidature de Trump est une gigantesque blague. J'ai hâte d'avoir plus de candidats républicains avec de la substance!!!!

Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump released his birth certificate exclusively to Newsmax on Monday, the news outlet reports.

An image of the document featured on the organization's website indicates that Trump was born at the Jamaica Hospital in New York on June 14, 1946.

"Trump questioned whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States during a phone interview on "Fox and Friends" on Monday morning. "He could have been born outside of this country," he said before asking, "Why can't he produce a birth certificate?"

Just last week, Trump found himself in a fiery exchange with Whoopi Goldberg while discussing the issue during an appearance on "The View." Here's the background on the drama that went down:

Trump appeared on the ABC show last week and set Goldberg off by saying that there was "something on [Obama's] birth certificate that he doesn't like." Goldberg called this "the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages" and asked, "it's not 'cause he's black, is it? ...Because I've never heard any white President asked to be shown the birth certificate."
On Monday's "Fox and Friends," Trump struck back. Asked if his comments had anything to do with race, he said, "absolutely not. I like Whoopi. I've always had a good relationship with Whoopi...but frankly, I mean, I think that's insulting that she brings up--what does that have to do with race?"
Trump said on Monday morning that the president's birthplace is an issue that has him "really concerned.""

He told Newsmax it took him only an hour to get his birth certificate. "It's inconceivable that after four years of questioning, the president still hasn't produced his birth certificate," he said. "I'm just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why's he making an issue out of this?"

Politico's Ben Smith notes:

As I wrote earlier, an official copy of Obama's birth certificate -- the same thing Trump would have to prove his own birth -- has been available and online for more than three years.
UPDATE: Ben Smith reports that the document released by Trump on Monday does not appear to be the potential presidential contender's official birth certificate. Officials told Politico's Maggie Haberman that if it were, it'd be marked with the seal of the Department of Health, as well as the signature of the city registrar, which do not appear on the image of the document posted on the Newsmax website.

Officials said the city Health Department is the "sole issuing authority" of official birth certificates in New York, and that the document would clearly say so, and "city officials said it's not an official document."
Smith notes that the document offered by Trump was likely given by the hospital to his family.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/donald-trump-birth-certificate_n_841554.html

Obama et la Libye: discours et premières réactions "à chaud"...

J'attends avec impatience les réactions des politiciens et des observateurs américains après le discours de ce soir.

À mon avis, Obama livre la marchandise et il précise un peu plus ce qu'on appelle déjà la "Doctrine Obama". Le Président prenait la parole en pensant d'abord aux américains (inquiets des coûts au moment où l'économie du pays est affectée), mais il savait très bien qu'on écoutait un peu partout sur la planète...

Son approche se veut pragmatique et Obama a précisé que les interventions américaines dans des conflits où les intérêts américains étaient limités auraient une portée limitée. En Libye les États-Unis n'étaient pas directement attaqués, mais la région est "fragile". Il a également rappelé que son pays avait assumé brièvement le leadership avant de le céder à l'OTAN (il a attendu l'annonce officielle du transfert avant de parler...). Ce leadership était intégré à une coalition et répondait à une résolution de l'ONU. L'implication américaine s'est effectuée à un moment stratégique (pour freiner les progrès de Kadhafi) et selon des intérêt humanitaires.

Il y a quelques années à peine, on aurait salué le discours d'un Président américain qui consulte ses alliés... Ce soir, certains lui reprochent déjà de ne pas assumer seul le leadership. La réaction la plus étonnante jusqu'à maintenant est venue de John McCain. Ce dernier souhaitait que le Président assume tout le leadership et qu'il "aille plus loin" que la protection des civils. Cette avenue me semble plus dangereuse et coûteuse (en vies humaines et en matériel) que ce qui se fait actuellement.

Plutôt décevante également également la réaction des républicains du Congrès, eux qui "exigeaient" une "no fly zone"... Je les souhaite plus imaginatifs et créatifs.

La question qui me "titille" encore est celle de la durée de l'intervention et de la définition du "succès". Si on pense aux enjeux stratégiques "bassement" électoraux, Obama devra préciser un peu ce qu'il considère être un succès en Libye.

Geraldine Ferraro: pour son décès... J'aime cette caricature.

Caricature Libye: Obama prépare son discours!