Via Mort Zuckerman at U.S. News and World Report.
World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur
Obama came into office as the heir to a great foreign policy legacy enjoyed by every recent U.S. president. Why? Because the United States stands on top of the power ladder, not necessarily as the dominant power, but certainly as the leading one. As such we are the sole nation capable of exercising global leadership on a whole range of international issues from security, trade, and climate to counterterrorism. We also benefit from the fact that most countries distrust the United States far less than they distrust one another, so we uniquely have the power to build coalitions. As a result, most of the world still looks to Washington for help in their region and protection against potential regional threats.……The reviews of Obama’s performance have been disappointing. He has seemed uncomfortable in the role of leading other nations, and often seems to suggest there is nothing special about America’s role in the world. The global community was puzzled over the pictures of Obama bowing to some of the world’s leaders and surprised by his gratuitous criticisms of and apologies for America’s foreign policy under the previous administration of George W. Bush. One Middle East authority, Fouad Ajami, pointed out that Obama seems unaware that it is bad form and even a great moral lapse to speak ill of one’s own tribe while in the lands of others.
Even in Britain, for decades our closest ally, the talk in the press—supported by polls—is about the end of the “special relationship” with America. French President Nicolas Sarkozy openly criticized Obama for months, including a direct attack on his policies at the United Nations. Sarkozy cited the need to recognize the real world, not the virtual world, a clear reference to Obama’s speech on nuclear weapons. When the French president is seen as tougher than the American president, you have to know that something is awry. Vladimir Putin of Russia has publicly scorned a number of Obama’s visions. Relations with the Chinese leadership got off to a bad start with the president’s poorly-organized visit to China, where his hosts treated him disdainfully and prevented him from speaking to a national television audience of the Chinese people. The Chinese behavior was unprecedented when compared to visits by other U.S. presidents.
Read the whole thing:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mzuckerman/2010/06/18/mort-zuckerman-world-sees-obama-as-incompetent-and-amateur.html
These are the same adoring Euro fans who held on to every word as he spoke in Berlin. The same Central American despots who heaped praise. The same Islamic nation-states who salivated at the thought of a Dhimmi in the White House. He ingratiated himself to all of them; apologizing for big, bad America’s sins—real or imagined—while they gloated. His world-wide Apology Tour fed the maws of an ecstatic global audience. He appealed to communist and muslim rulers alike. As it turns out, all that sucking up didn’t get much respect. It’s fun to take advantage of a rank amateur for awhile, but then the novelty tends to wear off. George W. Bush was a pro-military, pro-American, gutsy, straight-talking cowboy and savvy politician. They couldn’t wait for his exit from power.
In November 2008, they got what they wanted; a president who is everything George W. Bush wasn’t. A socialist doormat who wouldn’t dream of offending our enemies. He’s more aggressive toward Tea Party patriots and other domestic critics and opponents, than he is hostile threats to the United States.
Where’s the love?
Related posts:
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/muzzie-states-losing-their-crush-on-obama/
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/the-world-hearts-obama/