One of the most hyped aspect of the Age of Obama was how he was going to restore America’s standing in the world with his unique blend of Hope and Change.
It was said that we would enjoy the benefits of better relations with friend and foe alike. Well, fourteen months in, we seem to have to have the same foes, and fewer friends. He and his team came to the job with a reset button, literally, and quite unfortunately,
RUSSIA
BBC: Button gaffe embarrasses Clinton
Russian media have been poking fun at the US secretary of state over a translation error on a gift she presented to her Russian counterpart. Hillary Clinton gave Sergei Lavrov a mock “reset” button, symbolising US hopes to mend frayed ties with Moscow. But he said the word the Americans chose, “peregruzka”, meant “overloaded” or “overcharged”, rather than “reset”
After a not so great start, Russia was handed a gift when the Obama administration announced it was scrapping its missile defense plans in eastern Europe at the expense of longtime allies Poland and Czech Republic (more below). In return, Russia willcooperate with us on Iran
Russia Says No to Iran Nuclear Sanctions
MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear Thursday that Moscow wouldn’t back any new rounds of tough sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, and he dismissed a U.S. timetable for securing progress from Iran on ending its nuclear-fuel program.
To be fair, just this week, Russia said that maybe, just maybe, they might consider sanctions against Iran. That’s a major victory for Hillary and Obama.
POLAND and the CZECH REPUBLIC
U.S. scraps missile defense shield plans
According to CNN, the Obama administration made the “decision likely to appease Russia which had fiercely opposed the plans”. In return, we got nothing.
Prime minister Jan Fischer said in a statement that U.S. President Barack Obama told him in a Wednesday phone call that the United States was shelving its plans. Fischer did not say what reason Obama gave him for reconsidering.
A spokeswoman at the Polish Ministry of Defense also said the program had been suspended.
“This is catastrophic for Poland,” said the spokeswoman, who declined to be named in line with ministry policy.
CHINA
Don’t worry, China will help us with Iran Hail ‘close cooperation’ with Iran
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said that his country will maintain cooperation with Iran and foster ‘close coordination in international affairs’. China is willing “to maintain high-level contacts with Iran, encourage mutual understanding and confidence, promote practical cooperation between the two sides and close coordination in international affairs,” Wen said in a meeting with the visiting Iranian First Vice President, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, in Beijing…
China threatens ‘nuclear option’ of dollar sales
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
ISRAEL
WaPost: Dispute with Israel underscores limits of U.S. power, a shifting alliance
The two-week-old dispute between Israel and the United States over housing construction in East Jerusalem has exposed the limits of American power to pressure Israeli leaders to make decisions they consider politically untenable. But the blowup also shows that the relationship between the two allies is changing, in ways that are unsettling for Israel’s supporters.
How poorly has Obama handled our relationship with Israel? After the incredibly bitter healthcare reform battle royale, Obama got 327 member of Congress to sign a letter urging him to reconsider his current course, from Hot Air,
Barack Obama talks a lot about the “spirit of bipartisanship.†Now he’s had a chance to see it for himself, thanks to a series of diplomatic fumbles between the White House and Israel, usually one of America’s closest allies. More than three-quarters of the US House of Representatives signed a letter expressing dismay over the direction of the alliance, warning that the “highly publicized tensions†aren’t helping America’s interests
NOBODY IS SAFE FROM OBAMA’S REIGN OF ERROR, NOT OUR OLDEST ALLY,
As he headed back home from Washington, Gordon Brown must have rummaged through his party bag with disappointment.
Because all he got was a set of DVDs. Barack Obama, the leader of the world’s richest country, gave the Prime Minister a box set of 25 classic American films – a gift about as exciting as a pair of socks.Mr Brown is not thought to be a film buff, and his reaction to the box set is unknown. But it didn’t really compare to the thoughtful presents he had brought along with him. The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.
Hillary Clinton slaps Britain in the face over the Falklands
Hillary Clinton’s dire performance in Buenos Aires was not only an appalling display of appeasement towards a corrupt and authoritarian anti-American regime, which barely has the support of 20 percent of the Argentinian people. It was also an astonishing betrayal of the United Kingdom by her closest ally, and yet another slap in the face for Britain from the Obama administration.
EVEN NEW ZELAND! ISN’T SAFE!
Hillary Clinton insults New Zealand, fibs about her namesake
Rachel Morris, writing for the Washington Monthly’s blog, says that “Hillary Clinton may have gravely insulted” New Zealand in a recent Newsweek interview. Asked if a scrapbook she’s been keeping since childhood contains “any good jokes,” Clinton came up with this zinger: Here’s a good one. Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand: her opponents have observed that in the event of a nuclear war, the two things that will emerge from the rubble are the cockroaches and Helen Clark. [Laughs]
Ha ha, I guess? The trouble, as Morris points out, is that “Helen Clark is the current prime minister of New Zealand,” and has been since 1999. “[T]he joke doesn’t get funnier even if you happen to know something about New Zealand politics,” Morris tartly observes.
That’s not Clinton’s worst New Zealand gaffe, however. In the grand scheme of things, it’s hardly a big deal. New Zealand, after all, is a pretty obscure country halfway around the world. This, however, is just plain embarrassing: Mrs Clinton also once said her parents named her after [New Zealand native] Sir Ed Hillary, a nice line till it was pointed out she was born more than five years before he climbed Everest, when he was still a lesser-known beekeeper.
HONDURAS
What can you say about this one except the Obama administration got it 100% wrong. When Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was removed from office in a “coup”, the Obama administration demanded he be allowed to return to power. The Honduran constitution and legislature didn’t agree.
Defying U.S., Honduras won’t let Zelaya return as president
CARACAS, Venezuela — Honduras’ de facto government remains dead-set against the return of Manuel Zelaya as the country’s president, in defiance of the Obama administration and disregard of the U.S. sanctions imposed last week against the poor Central American nation.
Honduras Congress rejects return of ousted leader
TEGUCIGALPA — Honduran lawmakers late Wednesday roundly rejected the reinstatement of ousted President Manuel Zelaya during a heated debate revisiting details of the June 28 coup which polarized the nation.
David Fredosso explains just how wrong they were,
In response to the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, the U.S. State Department cut off foreign aid to Honduras and stopped approving visas for government officials. The U.S. is even threatening now to de-legitimize that nation’s upcoming November elections, and has been treating the interim government of Roberto Micheletti as a rogue regime.
But State’s is not the only opinion. By way of contrast, a new report (click here for the pdf) from the Congressional Research Service bears out what our editorial board has been pointing out for months now: The situation in Honduras should not be a cause for concern in Washington. It should a relief.
President Zelaya, who was attempting to subvert the constitutional order of Honduras by seeking re-election (considered a crime there) was removed from office by the order of civilian authorities, and the constitutional order of succession was honored afterward.
The legal arguments made in the report, which was prepared by Senior Foreign Law Specialist Norma Gutierrez, are quite intricate and based in Honduran law. But the bottom line is this: The Honduran Congress appears to have acted properly in deposing President Manuel Zelaya.
Are we better off now than we were thirteen months ago? The American people don’t think so,
A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds. The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin — 51 percent to 41 percent — Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency.
The great Michael Barone neatly summarizes these past thirteen months,
Obama proclaims that through persistence he can make the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Russia, China and the Palestinians see things our way. The evidence so far is that they are making him do things their way — and that our friends are wondering whether it pays to be on America’s side.
IT’S BEEN A BOW WOW WOW KIND OF PERFORMANCE
Hard to believe this happened…
…maybe it should have gone like this this?
