Obama pays homage to Gandhi

Obama pays homage to Gandhi
By: CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry

Mumbai, India (CNN) – For a man who used to hang a framed picture of Mahatma Gandhi in his Senate office, President Obama declared that checking out a museum honoring the Indian independence hero's legacy was "pretty cool" on Saturday.

Shortly after landing here for his first stop on a 10-day tour of Asia, the president and first lady Michelle Obama quickly headed over to this city's Gandhi Museum, a three-story home where Gandhi stayed when he was in Mumbai. It's now full of historic photos and posters as well as a library with about 50,000 Gandhi-related works.

This was like manna from heaven for the president, who once declared that the one person living or dead that he'd love to have dinner with would be Gandhi.

"Now it would probably be a really small meal, because he didn't eat a lot," Obama joked then about Gandhi's fasting.

Saturday Obama was particularly tickled about getting to sign a guest book at the museum and taking a peek at an older guest book that was signed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who also saw Gandhi as an inspiration for the civil rights movement in America.

"Pretty cool 1959," the president said after seeing King's signature.

The president spent several minutes in the library, which has Gandhi quotations on the walls such as, "Freedom is like a birth."

Obama seemed particularly moved by another quotation: "To call women the weaker sex is a libel. It is man's injustice to women ... If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with women."

"Look at that," said the president.

"It's my favorite," responded his guide, Dr. Usha Thakkar, a trustee of the museum.

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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/06/obama-pays-homage-to-gandhi/

Everyone will stop and look.

The Great Mahatma Gandhi would surely appreciate your shallow cynicism, as you courageously hurl simple-minded sanctimony from the comforts of your keyboard.

... I'd love to throw down on some paneer with both of them.

Oh, he visited the Gandhi museum. Well, that's nice too.

honoring Ghandi, that's rich.

How dare any US president honor Ghandi...anyway.

You drive a hard bargain but principle requires we do not celebrate this great man, and his vision.

Dinesh D'Souza was right! :sarcasm: