Obama’s European Tour: Arrogance, Ineptness and an Abdication of Leadership

Many observations have been made regarding President Barack Obama's recent trip overseas. Most of them have been quite severe and rightly so. His many “appearances” bore a striking resemblance to his nauseatingly long campaign for the presidency; a campaign devoid of specifics and substance and rich with swagger and rhetoric.

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Note to President Obama: The campaign is over and – as you like to throw in the faces of the Republican opposition in Washington DC – you won. It's time to lead. Perhaps the most disappointing element of President Obama's overseas failure was the fact that his handlers kept redefining what a successful trip would be. Initially, touting his "superior powers of oratory persuasion," his handlers claimed that Mr. Obama would acquire more military assistance for the efforts in Afghanistan and now Pakistan, persuade a now fiscally conservative EU to inject more funds into stimulating the world economy and engage world leaders in a way that would reclaim the United States' esteem in the world. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Obama's spin doctors claimed a successful trip because, "...well, gee, everyone liked the president and, well, that's what it's all about, isn't it?...being liked?" The truth of the matter is that while the European and Middle Eastern leaders smiled and patted Mr. Obama on the back, they gave him nothing. Pledges of military support for Afghanistan and Pakistan were minimal and excluded any battlefield contributions. Germany and France rejected any notion of infusing more capital into the world economy, instead demanding more oversight and regulation. And, as Mr. Obama pledged to deplete the US nuclear arsenal in his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia and China refused to endorse any action against North Korea on hearing that the Communist nation had illegally test launched an intercontinental missile. More...