"WASHINGTON — As President Obama welcomes world leaders to the United States this week, he has gone a long way toward meeting his goal of restoring the country’s international standing. Foreign counterparts flock to meet with him, and polls show that people in many countries feel much better about the United States. But eight months after his inauguration, all that good will so far has translated into limited tangible policy benefits for Mr. Obama. As much as they may prefer to deal with Mr. Obama instead of his predecessor, George W. Bush, foreign leaders have not gone out of their way to give him what he has sought. European allies still refuse to send significantly more troops to Afghanistan. The Saudis basically ignored Mr. Obama’s request for concessions to Israel, while Israel rebuffed his demand to stop settlement expansion. North Korea defied him by testing a nuclear weapon. Japan elected a party less friendly to the United States. Cuba has done little to liberalize in response to modest relaxation of sanctions. India and China are resisting a climate change deal. And Russia rejected new sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program even as Mr. Obama heads into talks with Tehran."But of course they like him. "They" meaning the world's despots such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, Libya. They like him because they can play him like a fiddle much like Putin did in getting him to drop our missile shield in eastern Europe. During the summit in 1961 Nikita Khrushchev liked Kennedy's smile and Jackie's er, figure. But he chewed Kennedy up and spat him out during their meeting. This led to us to the brink of nuclear war. Kennedy didn't have the 'metal' and neither does Obama. Anyone can be likable, but it takes strength, tenacity, and guts to be a leader and so far we've seen nothing of this from Obama.
September 19, 2009
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Barack Obama
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