Berlusconi on Obama

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Italy’s famously impolitic Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi described U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday as “young, handsome and even tanned.”

Berlusconi appeared to be joking about America’s first black president at a news conference following talks with Russia’s president.

The Italian leader, who has a history of controversial remarks, was asked by a reporter about the prospect for U.S.-Russian relations, which have plummeted to Cold War-levels in recent months.

Berlusconi responded by saying that the relative youth of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 43, and Obama, 47, should make it easier for Moscow and Washington to work together.

Then he said, smiling: “I told the president that (Obama) has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: he’s young, handsome and even tanned.”

Medvedev did not visibly react to the comment.

Italian news agencies said Berlusconi later defended the remark to reporters as he returned to his hotel in Moscow, calling the statement “a great compliment”

“Why are they taking it as something negative? … If they have the vice of not having a sense of humor, worse for them,” the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.

Later, Berlusconi told Sky TV-24 Ore that the remark was meant to be “cute” and he lashed out at those who don’t see it as such, calling them “imbeciles, of which there are too many.”

Berlusconi is infamous for eyebrow-raising comments.

He once compared a German lawmaker to a Nazi camp guard, asserted after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that Western civilization was superior to Islam and more recently, that the new Spanish government had too many women.

Italy’s only black lawmaker, Jean-Leonard Touadi, called the comment embarrassing.

“In the United States, a joke like that wouldn’t just be politically incorrect, but a great offense to this amazing example of integration, which it seems the Italian premier should take as an example,” Touadi said.

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He’s some man is Berlusconi. I used to live with an Italian girl and she was of the opinion that he is pretty much the devil incarnate.

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Didn’t he also say something about the Danish Prime Minister a few years back? He complemented him on being the best looking politician around and said he was so good looking he wouldn’t mind him borrowing his wife if he ever wanted to.

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Italy is truly one shit hole of a ‘country’. In any other western country, Berlusconi and half of the Italian politicians and beurocrats would be in jail.

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Italy is a great country- great quality of life ,great food,hot birds, great cities, great coastline ,best footballing nation in the world etc etc

also In any other western country, Bertie and half of the irish politicians would be in jail.

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[quote=“north county corncrake”]Italy is a great country- great quality of life ,great food,hot birds, great cities, great coastline ,best footballing nation in the world etc etc

also In any other western country, Bertie and half of the irish politicians would be in jail.[/quote]

Just finished reading Gomorrah, unbelievable stuff, Italy is sick, very sick. The south especially is virtually controlled by crime syndicates, the camorra, the scilian mafia, the Ndrangheta, etc. Hard to believe whats going on in a modern european country.

No wonder the Northern League want out.

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just high jinx with the mafia padjo -

did you see the movie yet SS?

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Good point NCC, maybe you should live there and take all the shinner scumbags with you. I understand terrorists and bigots are all the rage in places like Rome.

Italy is the armpit of the democratic world. Vain, superficial, xenophobic, racist, buerocratic to the point of state paralysis, no free media, shite TV, increasingly a cultural wasteland and by far the most corrupt ‘democratic’ country in the world. Ask an Italian what he/she thinks of their country and you’ll get a similarly hateful response.

One week there, and a person begins to appreciate how lucky we have it in Ireland.

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[quote=“Turenne”]Good point NCC, maybe you should live there and take all the shinner scumbags with you. I understand terrorists and bigots are all the rage in places like Rome.

Italy is the armpit of the democratic world. Vain, superficial, xenophobic, racist, buerocratic to the point of state paralysis, no free media, shite TV, increasingly a cultural wasteland and by far the most corrupt ‘democratic’ country in the world. Ask an Italian what he/she thinks of their country and you’ll get a similarly hateful response.

One week there, and a person begins to appreciate how lucky we have it in Ireland.[/quote]

from that post above its kind of ironic you are calling the Italians xenophobic:rolleyes:
we arent shy when it comes to corruption,racism ,shite tv etc

First time I heard of Italy being described as a cultural wasteland:D

Id guess that Italy spain & France would be he most visited countries in europe- why would so many people visit Italy if it was so bad

I could think of a lot of places worse than tuscany or sorrento to live in

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Berlusconi’s in the news again today. There’s been a widespread debate about rape in Italy and Berlusconi piped up to say there’s so many beautiful women in Italy that they’d need military escorts to avoid being raped. It hasn’t gone down too well, surprisingly enough.

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From The Irish Times:

Liking girls beats being gay - Berlusconi

Berlusconi: ‘As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it’s better to like beautiful girls than to be gay’.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi dismissed calls to resign today over reports he helped a 17-year-old girl who attended parties at his house, saying it was “better to like beautiful girls than to be gay”.

He refused to apologise for his fondness for young women and denied doing anything improper, after the case of the girl known as Ruby filled Italian newspapers last week and opposition politicians called for him to resign.

“As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it’s better to like beautiful girls than to be gay,” he told a meeting at a motorcycle industry show in Milan.

“You should be completely reassured about the government and about the fact that it’s a government that still has a majority that intends to govern until the end of its term,” he said.

Mr Berlusconi, who has tangled with the media over parties and women in the past, has been under increasing pressure since newspapers last week carried reports about the teenager who attended parties at his sumptuous villa at Arcore near Milan.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported details of a phone call it said Mr Berlusconi made to a Milan police chief on Ruby’s behalf when she was detained over a separate theft incident in May, raising questions of whether he improperly intervened.

Mr Berlusconi says he helped Ruby, whose real name is reported by Italian newspapers to be Karima El Mahroug, but he denies exerting any improper pressure on police officers.

“This recent storm in the newspapers is a paper storm,” Mr Berlusconi said. “You will see in the end that nothing else happened apart from an act of solidarity by the prime minister, which I would have been ashamed not to do.”

The teenager, who has since turned 18, has told newspapers she received €7,000 from Mr Berlusconi after attending two parties. She has denied having sex with the 74-year-old premier.

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There aren’t any photos of this Ruby character it seems. Silvio is some man for succumbing to temptation.

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Quality movie, shows well what the life is like, and doesn’t try to “Hollywood” or glorify it.