President Barack Obama must do more than manage America’s decline

[Casino67]

Telegraph.co.uk:

 

 

Why was Barack Obama so popular globally when he ran for the US presidency four years ago? Because people believed that an eloquent and charismatic first (half-) black president of the United States could do good in the world. The retro-chic poster with a picture of Mr Obama and the single word “HOPE” on it conveyed the entire message.

 

Four years on, Mr Obama remains eloquent, charismatic and (obviously) 50-per-cent black. He still has considerable global prestige, but his career exhibits a contradiction which, over time, tells against him. He has used that prestige to tell us, in effect, that the president of the United States cannot do all that much good in the world. His message is that American power has lessened, that America is not a special place.

 

In logic, if you accept this message, you must place less hope in the man who delivers it. He is the advocate of his nation’s decline, and therefore of the reduction of his power. The odd decision to give Mr Obama the Nobel Peace Prize at the start rather than the finish of his presidency turns out to make a sort of sense: he achieved much more by winning the election than by anything that he has done.

 

You can see this clearly if you survey the Middle East. In this month in 2009, Mr Obama delivered his landmark speech in Cairo: “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims.” Three years on, Syrians are trying to overthrow their oppressive regime, but they aren’t getting much help from America.

[Valin]

@Casino67

 

There are those (and not in the nutter wing of the conservative movement) who maintain the 4th best President (and some/many on the Left) wants to see America taken down a couple of notches.

What Jeane Kirkpatrick called The Blame America First Crowd. Alas since 1968 they have been getting more and more power in a certain major political party.

[Casino67]

@Valin

 

I keep saying that November is the cure. 136 days until the election.

[Valin]

@Valin

 

I keep saying that November is the cure. 136 days until the election.

 

The cure to Obama...its starting to look that way. The cure to the underlying problem/mindset....not so sure.