Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Why The World Likes Obama

It's not a very good reason:

It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be – ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism.

It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership...

The president scores highly at the UN for refusing to project American values and military might on the world stage, with rare exceptions like the war against the Taliban. His appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear free world, his siding with Marxists in Honduras, his talk of a climate change deal, have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with contempt.

Simply put, Barack Obama is loved at the UN because he largely fails to advance real American leadership.


He's weak, and the wolves will wait for the best time to pounce.

1 comment:

Ellen K said...

Let's put this in perspective. Have you ever had to deal with the "favorite teacher" syndrome? While you enforce such paltry rules as dress code and tardy policies and attendance, this teacher lets kids slide by. Their classes are amusing, discussed by many and always the source of discussion. But the problem is, they don't do the work. Sure they take on sponsorships for Student Council or they show up in key roles for pep rallies, but they also make everyone's else's lives harder because they simply will not expect the same behavior and attendance as other teachers. The other teachers are pegged as stodgy or stiff, but in reality, the "favorite teacher" perpetuates their own popularity by undercutting the rules at the expense of those around them. Is this not what Obama is doing? He offers pleasant platitudes that play into the psyche of a radicalized UN General Assembly and even beats up the nerdy kid that's been his best friend since college all in order to prop up his own persona. We don't need an apologizers in chief, we need a leader.