Reply #53: Aside from the obvious reasons [View All]

[MADem]

...the war, his arrogant attitude, his failure to work with the UN instead of simply complaining about them...we can't forget that business with the Italian journalist whose James Bondian Italian hero bodyguard was killed by US troops on the airport road in Baghdad. Those folks in the piazza hadn't forgotten. And it is unlikely that they will anytime soon.

I think the reason they stopped showing him on the jumbotron was for the simple reason that the ceremony was NOT about HIM. It wasn't censorship--he saw the camera pointed his way, and he heard the reaction of the crowd. Point made. No need to belabor the obvious.

But he knew how he'd be received, already. He went from armored car to secure location to armored car to the venue, and then to AF1. Clinton, on the other hand, strolled the streets, chatted people up, stopped for coffee, and had a fine time going out and about.