Yet, on Sunday, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez called Obama "a poor ignoramus" who "should read and study a little to understand reality."
Given how impressed news members are with our new President, and how they regularly disparaged the intellectual capacity of George W. Bush, it is going to be very interesting to see how Chavez's comments get covered in the coming days.
Here's how Reuters reported them about seven hours ago:
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama was at best an "ignoramus" for saying the socialist leader exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America.
"He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he's a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality," said Chavez, who heads a group of left-wing Latin American leaders opposed to the U.S. influence in the region.
Chavez said Obama's comments had made him change his mind about sending a new ambassador to Washington, after he withdrew the previous envoy in a dispute last year with the Bush administration in which he also expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela.
"When I saw Obama saying what he said, I put the decision back in the drawer; let's wait and see," Chavez said on his weekly television show, adding he had wanted to send a new ambassador to improve relations with the United States after the departure of George W. Bush as president.
The article stated that Chavez was responding to comments Obama made back in January during an interview with the Spanish language network Univision. As such, within months of his Inauguration, Obama has already hampered diplomatic relations with a despot that many media members revere.
As you can imagine, if Bush was still President, this would likely be front-page, headline news. Yet, so far this hasn't garnered a great deal of attention.
The Associated Press covered this a few hours ago, and it was picked up by NYTimes.com. But will it make the paper's print edition tomorrow, and, if so, where will it be placed?
And how will it play on broadcast television as well as the cable networks tomorrow?
Stay tuned.
