I want Obama to achieve success on the world stage. I also would want my college football team to beat the #1 team in the country, but I know it is not going to happen. Same with Obama’s foreign policy.

We’ve seen this type of foreign policy before, it was called the Carter Administration. It failed in 1979 and it will fail in 2009. It is much better to be respected by the world than to be liked.

The worst problem is that there is no Ronald Reagan on the horizon to repair the damage from Obama’s incompetence.

The 3 amigos, heh?

Those damn Israeli Jews, if we could just get rid of those trouble makers, heh? Then crush the Western Right……peace will overflow the land, and intellectual blooming like that of the Renaisance will esconsce the planet.

What a hoot!

I wonder who invented that trick?

Well, I dont wonder, I in fact know. Enjoy the Western Left Zeitgeist.

Just noting that outside the Republican Party, the only people in the world who really seem scornful of Obama are the Israelis and Al Qaeda.

And no, that doesn’t mean Obama is some kind of Messiah (I could see that card coming out of your hand already…). It means that Obama has been incredibly adept at outreach, touting America’s values with a sense of humility that Bush claimed he would bring to the national stage (surely you remember his 2000 campaign pledge to have a “humble” foreign policy) – and that the only actors in the world who feel he represents a real threat to them are the Republican Party, Al Qaeda, and Israel (who wants no pressure from America to withdraw from their illegal expansions of settlements in the occupied territories).

Obama went to Copenhagen as a salesman of America, not as a dealmaker. That he couldn’t close the sale in this instance wasn’t a shock – Rio was basically selling a better product, and it would have been counterproductive to America’s greater interests had he actually tried to engage in any arm-twisting over this. But every time Obama and his wonderful family travels abroad it seems to bring good will from everywhere but the Republican Party.

Perhaps it’s time to wonder where the values of some on the extreme right are these days, when their primary focus is on undermining whatever good the President might be able to achieve on the global stage.

Right. Because the Olympics bid was important enough to use the type of chits that a nation usually reserves for the most serious threats to its economy or national security.

Um…d00d…is this a leftwinger site? I don’t think you’re paying attention. The idea was proposed right here by an “NM Washington insider,” not some “leftwinger.”

i was responding to you greg barton. that’s why i quoted your post, not NM Washington insider.

it’s true that this is not a leftwinger site. but for a conservative blog, there’s are a lot of leftwing wacko commenters here, and they outnumber the rightwingers. these commenters were probably imported from the leftwing bhtv site run by loonys like bjkeefe.

but i will continue to comment on this site out of loyalty for frum.

While Obama is very popular throughout the world, there is someone who agrees with you, John:

oh, now you’re comparing me to al queda. how clever. while you’re at it, why not throw in hitler comparisons too.

I think that Obama’s popularity may not be translating into a stronger bargaining power internationally because foreign leaders are witnessing an unprecedented undercutting of the President’s foreign policy agenda by Obama’s opposition at home, and are probably sitting pat to see what happens domestically in America before they make any concessions.

sure, blame the repubs for obama admin’s disastrous olympic last place fiasco.

While Obama is very popular throughout the world, there is someone who agrees with you, John:

Al-Qaida No. 2 calls Obama a ‘fraud’
By SARAH EL DEEB (AP) – 6 days ago

CAIRO — Al-Qaida’s deputy leader on Monday seized upon President Barack Obama’s failure to bring about a freeze in Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and called him a “fraud” in a new audio message.

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I think that Obama’s popularity may not be translating into a stronger bargaining power internationally because foreign leaders are witnessing an unprecedented undercutting of the President’s foreign policy agenda by Obama’s opposition at home, and are probably sitting pat to see what happens domestically in America before they make any concessions.

In the last few months, we’ve seen the following from Republican congressmen:

• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is visiting Honduras in order to support the recent military coup against a leftist president, which has been opposed by the Obama administration and all the surrounding countries in the region.

• Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will be going to the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, bringing a “Truth Squad” to tell foreign officials there that the American government will not take any action: “Now, I want to make sure that those attending the Copenhagen conference know what is really happening in the United States Senate.”

• House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) traveled to Israel, where he spoke out against President Obama’s opposition to expanded settlements. He also defended Israel on the eviction of two Arab families from a house in east Jerusalem, which had been criticized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

• Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) boasted in June that he told Chinese officials not to trust America’s budget numbers. “One of the messages I had — because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor,” said Kirk, “is that the budget numbers that the US government had put forward should not be believed.” Since then, he has declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate.