- Obama's face always betrays him. Here looking like he bit on a lemon.
Der Spiegel: "The mood in Obama's foreign policy team is tense following an extended Asia trip that produced no palpable results.
- The "first Pacific president," as Obama called himself,
came as a friend and returned as a stranger. The Asians smiled but made no concessions.
- Lost Some Stature
Upon taking office, Obama said that he wanted to listen to the world, promising respect instead of arrogance. But Obama's currency isn't as strong as he had believed.
- Everyone wants respect, but hardly anyone is willing to pay for it.
The Asia trip revealed the limits of Washington's new foreign policy: Although Obama did not lose face in China and Japan, he did appear to have lost some of his initial stature.
- In Tokyo, the new center-left government even pulled out of its participation in a mission which saw the Japanese navy refueling US warships in the Indian Ocean as part of the Afghanistan campaign.
In Beijing, Obama failed to achieve any important concessions whatsoever.
- There will be no binding commitments from China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A revaluation of the Chinese currency, which is kept artificially weak, has been postponed. Sanctions against Iran? Not a chance. Nuclear disarmament?
- Not an issue for the Chinese.
The White House did not even stand up for itself when it came to the question of human rights in China.
- The president, who had said only a few days earlier that freedom of expression is a universal right, was
- coerced into attending a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao,
- at which questions were forbidden.
Former US President George W. Bush had always managed to avoid such press conferences."...
- from "Obama's Nice Guy Act gets him Nowhere on the World Stage," by Gabor Steingart, Der Spiegel, 11/23/09. ap photo, via the Drudge Report
- US taxpayers lived lesser lives so foreign crooks could live the high life. But we're bad. (framus)
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