Posted on 09/09/2013 2:15:44 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Russian President Vladimir Putin earned a new distinction last month, when conservative U.S. blogger Matt Drudge branded him the "leader of the free world."
Drudge's support of Putin may seem odd (just last year he was angry with Obama for calling Putin after the Russian was re-elected president), but Drudge doesn't seem to be alone in his newfound high opinion of the Russian leader. When Business Insider posted a photograph of Obama's G20 "death glare" to Putin on Facebook, the comments were overwhelmingly pro-Putin.
"The back of Putin's head is more intimidating than Obama's 'death stare,'" one user wrote. Other less visceral, yet still positive, opinions about Putin can be found at places like Foreign Affairs journal and The New York Times' op-ed page.
The simple explanation for Putin's popularity is his opposition to military intervention in Syria, which puts him in the same camp as most Americans. But Putin himself appears to be gaining an international following, as people buy into his persona as a tough and clever underdog hero.
In respect to a recent meme, you might even call him the Chuck Norris of international politics.
We're not the first to notice the similar reputations. Norris has long been the Internet's standard bearer for masculinity with random facts about his strength and skill ("When Alexander Bell invented the telephone, he had three missed calls from Chuck Norris"), and that meme extended to Putin a few years ago ("Putin can solve any diplomatical crisis. With his fists"). Cracked.com calls him the "world's craziest badass," and multiple websites ponder who would win in a fight between Putin and Norris.
Putin's action-hero reputation comes from years of cultivation...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
SO Vlady is Russia Chuck Norris LOL!
Putin gets my vote. How far we have fallen.
Putin is no Chuck Norris. Anybody can come to that conclusion just by watching the documentary ‘The Delta Force’
Putin is a bastard. But he’s a bastard who loves his country, and more man than the Pantywaist-in-Chief will ever be.
It helps to have a clown for US President.
More like :
” Vlad the Impaler”, as he certainly has done that to Barry O Wanna be world loved leader.
One thing in his favor lately was shunning the queer agenda in Russia. Someone should have done that long ago in this country
It is a lot easier to look like Chuck Norris when your competition is doing his best to look like Pee Wee Herman.
Obama is like Putin’s toilet.
He never flushes it.
He just scares the crap out of it.
The writer’s not very bright. A nation armed with 10K nukes can be called many things, but “underdog” is not one of them. The moron probably thinks we could have avoided the Cold War if only we had been nicer to the Soviets. In reality, Russians are real scumbags, and we’ve never really paid them back for the casualties they inflicted on us by proxy during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Unfortunately, their nukes give them bargaining power, and we’d do well to factor in the possibility that they’ll use their nukes to level the playing field before we consider an attack on any of their client states.
“The back of Putin’s head is more intimidating than Obama’s ‘death stare,’”
Ain’t that the truth.
Only when compared to our own PeeWee Herman....
Great Minds...and all that....see post #16
President community agitator vs former head of KGB
serious mismatch. 0bama talks the talk, putin walked the walk when it comes to raw political power.
“It is a lot easier to look like Chuck Norris when your competition is doing his best to look like Pee Wee Herman.”
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
So now its the lesser of two evils argument? Obama is a scumbag but so is Putin. In fact if I had typed that Putin was a scumbag while in Russia, I could have been arrested by Vlad’s jack-booted thugs. I will not trade a Marxist for a fascist. For all of America’s faults, we are a far more free and moral people than Putin’s Russian serfs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.