President Obama's "tour" of Thailand

President Obama hadn't even arrived here in Thailand, but the US Embassy made it appear he had already visited many of the country's most important sites. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC explains how.

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This was first published in November, 2012

President Obama's "tour" of Thailand

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow speaks very quickly in this two-minute video clip, so, if you are a learner of English, you will probably want to read the transcript. Try watching the video once before your read, however, and see how much you understand. The story itself is not difficult to understand.

(Fact check: It is not correct that President Obama is the first US president to visit Thailand.)

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Best new thing in the world today.

When you are an American diplomat stationed abroad, one of the biggest events in your diplomatic life is a visit from the President of the United States.

The nation of Thailand is about to get its very first visit ever from a president this weekend, President Obama. And so the American Embassy in Bangkok is understandably very excited right now. But they're also a little disappointed and having a hard time disguising it.

They're disappointed because President Obama will be visiting Thailand, but he will not staying very long. That's three countries in less than three days. But because they can't schedule a whole bunch of official stops for the president to go see all of Thailand's most famous sites, the U.S. Embassy in Thailand came up with another idea.

We call it President Faux Bama. They have done a cardboard cutout, lifesize, of President Obama which the embassy has photographed in front of what appears to be a famous Siamese temple with some lovely serpents. 

They have done ten of these photos in all. Flat President Obama posed at famous Thai landmarks. And even though we initially thought they had toted cardboard Obama around the country to do this, the State Department tells us that actually these are theme park replicas of major landmarks across Thailand. So it's Faux Bama visiting faux Thailand which is perfect.

The American Embassy on their Facebook page takes a heartwarmingly aggressive approach to courting good will from the locals. In addition to the cardboard president at the famous sites of Thailand feature, they have lots of pictures of dogs, which they use to explain dog-related American idioms that might not make sense in translation. So this one is accompanied by an explanation of the phrase, dog-eared. This one explains what dog-tired means although this one doesn't look very tired. This one explains what sick as a dog means.

So we wish the fine folks at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok congratulations on their presidential visit and their effort to leverage this visit into maximum online visual effect with a cardboard replica of the president. That is the best new diplomatic thing in the world today. Have a great weekend. Now it's time for "the last word...