Obama's Weakness Doesn't Play Well, Even In Europe

Germany's Der Spiegel had some rather pungent comments on Obama, looking at his dismal Asian trip and saying that his 'nice guy act' is getting him nowhere on the world stage:

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. {...}

Obama's advisors fear a comparison with former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, even more than with Bush. Prominent Republicans have already tried to liken Obama to the humanitarian from Georgia, who lost in his bid to win a second term, because voters felt that he was too soft. "Carter tried weakness and the world got tougher and tougher because the predators, the aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators, when they sense weakness, they all start pushing ahead," Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, recently said. And then he added: "This does look a lot like Jimmy Carter."

Hmm...can this be the same Obamessiah the Germans and other Europeans fawned over a little over a year ago? Could it possibly be that having gotten a glimpse of what a weak America might mean to them personally, the Europeans are starting to have some doubts about the One's wonderfulness? You think?

Actually, the comparisions to Carter ( 'humanitarian'? blecchhh!) are apt,except even cwayzie Unkie Jimmie didn't manage to screw things up at home and abroad quite as badly as Barack Hussein Obama. And I'm sure ex-President carter is grateful for that fact:



We were sold a bill of goods, my friends. And not what I'd call quality merchandise either. This is exactly what I predicted, of course. But you can't say I didn't give him a chance...