Normally I leave the line by line, paragraph by paragraph dissection of a story to Sweetness and Light… it’s what they do and do very well, but sometimes you have to do it too.
Around world, Obama’s presidency a disappointment
In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Barack Obama speak, there’s disappointment that he hasn’t kept his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and perceptions that he’s shunting blame for the financial crisis across the Atlantic.
Somehow I don’t think Gitmo is a pressing issue in Europe and seriously who is surprised at this point Obama is blaming others?
In Mogadishu, a former teacher wishes he had sent more economic assistance and fewer armed drones to fix Somalia’s problems. And many in the Middle East wonder what became of Obama’s vow, in a landmark 2009 speech at the University of Cairo, to forge a closer relationship with the Muslim world.
Economic assistance, oh you mean hand-out… I’ve been to Somalia and the place just needs to be paved over, beside Little Barry was to busy breaking us with hand-outs here. as far as closer relations with the Muslim world goes – fergitaboutit – as long as Muslim continue to try and kill us I don’t see a sleep over in the immediate future.
In a world weary of war and economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the consensus is that Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later. Many in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America were also taken aback by his support for gay marriage, a taboo subject among religious conservatives.
Seriously you’re bring up up global warming? I guess they noticed that the sea-levels didn’t fall as Obama said would happen with his election, so yeah I’d call that lofty expectation. Just Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America gay marriage is taboo? So the fact that 37 North American states have banned it is what… a fringe group?
But the Democrat still enjoys broad international support. In large part, it’s because of unfavorable memories of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, and many people would still prefer Obama over his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
And we should care why? Would it be that Romney wouldn’t bow to every little despot in the world? Would it be that Romney wouldn’t let every little two-bit country have their way on the world stage? Would it be that George W Bush and the GOP would be looking out for American interest first instead of throwing us under the bus as Obama does? Yeah that’s a winning argument - go with that.
“We all had high hopes for him,” said Filomena Cunha, an office worker in Lisbon, Portugal, who said she’s struggling to make ends meet. “But then things got bad and there’s not much he can do for us over here.”
And tell me Filomena why is Portugal our problem? I’ve been to Portugal too and for the most part liked it, but I fail to see how your financial problems there are ours here.
Obama’s rock-star-like reception at Berlin’s Victory Column in the summer of 2008 was a high point of a wildly successful European campaign tour. The thawing of a harsh anti-Americanism that had thrived in Europe was as much a reaction to the Bush years as it was an embrace of the presidential hopeful.
There was some other guy in Germany that use to get rock-star like receptions before there were rock-stars and that didn’t turn out to well either did it? Oh what was his name…?
Those high European expectations have turned into disappointment, largely because of the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo Bay in the face of vehement congressional opposition.
Seems the reality of running a war showed it’s ugly head and yet he got the Nobel Peace Prize – talk about losing credibility. Again with Gitmo – these must be a real sore spot with the writer of the article.
Foreign policy expert Josef Braml, who analyzes the U.S. for the German Council on Foreign Relations, said many Germans give Obama too much of the blame because they don’t understand the limits of his powers.
I can’t imagine what Germany wouldn’t understand the limits of power and why that would be a good thing… perhaps they should look into it.
“There’s a lack of understanding both of how the system of checks and balances works – or doesn’t work any longer – and a lack of understanding of how big the socio-economic problems in the United States are, which cause the gridlock,” Braml said in a telephone call from Greece, where he was on vacation.
Socioeconomic (it’s not hyphenated AP) … oh you mean the problem of class warfare created by Obama to create divide as in the old divide and conquer of despots and dictators of the past. You mean Europe of all places doesn’t understand class divide? I find that hard to believe.
Obama’s views on Europe’s financial crisis also have rankled some on the continent. In September, he said the crisis was “scaring the world” and that steps taken by European nations to stem the eurozone debt problem “haven’t been as quick as they need to be.”
I’m pretty sure Obama doesn’t need to be giving anyone financial advice.
The Obama administration describes the eurozone crisis as a European problem that needs a European solution. The U.S. and Canada last month refused to participate in boosting the International Monetary Fund’s financial resources to manage the crisis.
That would be because we are broke thanks to Obama’s depleting our monetary fund.
“I think people see through his game to put the blame on Europeans – I think Germans and Europeans still know where the economic crisis had its beginning,” Braml said. “That’s just finger-pointing, not doing a fair analysis of the dire situation in the U.S., but I can understand Obama is doing that because he wants to get re-elected so they need to shift blame around on the Republicans or the Europeans.”
I think people see through his game of blaming George W Bush… blame the Republicans, blame the Tea Party, blame the tsunami, the earthquake, the Arab Spring, ATM’s, goblins and boogie monsters under the bed…
Mehmet Yegin, a specialist in Turkish-American relations at USAK, the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization, said Europe still sees Obama as superior to Romney, “because they primarily evaluate Romney as a Republican and their memories about George W. Bush linger.”
They George W Bush as it’s a bad thing, I read that as Bush would kiss their Turkish asses and Obama will… I can only speak for myself buy I honestly don’t care what a Muslim country, or any country for that matter thinks about our President.
Many in the Mideast also would like to see Obama win a second term, though they feel he has not lived up to his Cairo speech, in which he extended a hand to the Islamic world by calling for an end to the cycle of suspicion and discord.
Gee wonder why? Is it because he is weak and bows a lot – oh sure bin Ladin was killed on his watch but he had little to do with it no matter how much credit he is trying to take.
Obama has been the U.S. president “least involved in the Palestinian issue,” said Mohammed Ishtayeh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
You know I’ve been hearing about Palestinian issues my entire life and frankly I’m tired of it… I don’t care, those folks have been arguing about boarders and land sine the time of Moses – I think it’s safe to say an agreement is not going to be reached in our lifetime or our children or theirs…
“We were very optimistic when Obama was elected. He talked in his meeting with us without looking into his notes; that tells how much he knows about our issue,” he said.
But since Obama made his Cairo speech, Ishtayeh added, “he found his hands tied and couldn’t make much progress.”
His hands have been tied? Please he got elected and you longer matter… wake the hell up.
The Palestinians have refused to conduct peace talks while Israel continues to expand its settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem – areas claimed by the Palestinians. Officials have quietly given up hope for any sort of breakthrough until after the presidential election.
Obama also has a strained relationship with Israel, where Bush was popular. Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been cool to one another in their handful of meetings. Obama’s Mideast envoy, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, made no progress during two years of frequent meetings with both sides before quitting last year.
Despite the chilly relations between Obama and Netanyahu, overall ties between the allies remain strong. The U.S. has backed Israel on several key occasions at the United Nations, for instance, helping block a Palestinian attempt to join the world body last year without a peace deal and fending off attempts by other countries to charge Israel with human rights abuses.
Really so Obama kept things strong by telling Israel they need to go back to the 1967 boarders? Among other things… please.
“Concerning Israel, he has proved that he is not absolutely rigid but is willing to reconsider when confronted with facts that he would not have expected,” said Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
“He began very inexperienced on all fronts, but he is a very intelligent person and Israelis see that,” Diskin added.
I’m sorry Obama is not that intelligent, he can read a teleprompter and smile and that’s about it, he is at most a puppet.
In Iraq, site of the war that fed much of the international community’s dislike of Bush, Obama has received some credit for pulling out combat forces last year.
“President Obama has removed so much of the cowboy image of America that has been imprinted in the mentality of Iraqis by Bush,” Baghdad lawyer Raad Mehsin said.
But Carawan Ahmed, a high school teacher in Iraq’s northern Kurdish capital of Irbil, said Obama has ignored the Kurdish minority, which continues to struggle against the Shiite-dominated government.
“When Democrats, including Obama, are in power, we lose the sympathy and support from America. To be frank, the Republicans protected the Kurdish people, while Obama’s administration is not,” Ahmed said.
That’s because the Cowboys are the good guys and Obama is nothing but a street thug and if you can’t do anything for him (like vote) he is not going to do anything for you.
In Mogadishu, former schoolteacher Fadumo Hussein retains a shaken support for Obama, but disapproves of the mounting casualties from U.S. drone attacks on Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked insurgency while the country’s humanitarian need is neglected.
“He only sent drones, not enough assistance,” Hussein said. “We don’t need bombs, but other means of assistance.”
As I said earlier, you need to be paved over… it’s a rat-hole desert full of thugs and pirates.
While still widely admired in Japan, the U.S. “comes across as a more divided country and less self-confident, more concerned about its social harmony and less about the outside world,” Nakano said. That’s translated into “a general perception
Well gee-wiz I wonder why we appear divided?
During a visit last year in which he received an overwhelmingly popular reception, Obama announced that up to 2,500 U.S. Marines will be stationed in Australia’s north for joint training exercises. Australian government fears of a public backlash were never realized.
“The fact that Obama himself was making the announcement of U.S. troops in Australia quelled a lot of fears,” Lockyer said. If Bush had made it, he said, “there would have been a lot more hostility.”
That’s an assumption and you know what happens when you assume – the American military is widely liked in Australia – at least it was when I was there. There were more respectful of the women and less drunk than the men. No offense my Aussie friends you know it’s true.
Frankly while I have friends around the world I really don’t care what they think of our style of politics – they don’t live here, they aren’t paying taxes, they aren’t supoorting the slackers and they aren’t having to live under the leadership of this amateur politician and glorified community agitator.
