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Can He Wow the World Again?
Sipa / AP Photo
No matter what the president says at the U.N. General Assembly, he’s doomed to disappoint his foreign admirers—and maybe even spark a surge of anti-Americanism.
President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly neatly captured his strengths and weaknesses, from his admirable focus on the difficulties involved in meeting global challenges to his easy solipsism. On Tuesday, he delivered a widely praised address on climate change, one that offered a message that was hopeful and urgent in equal measure. In one memorable passage, the president noted the United States “has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history,” a pointed reminder that his administration represents a sharp break with America’s recent past. On Wednesday, he made the same point with regards to torture in the most irritating manner possible. "For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months." Viewed through a conservative lens, this sounds suspiciously as though Obama is praising himself while condemning all that came before him.
Click Image Below to View Gallery of Memorable U.N. Moments
The highlight of the speech was Obama's insistence that the United States cannot and should not bear the burden of global leadership alone, a "real talk" interlude amidst the diplomatese. Indeed, one could accuse Obama of channeling his right-of-center critics when he said, "those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," an almost perfect restatement of the neoconservative credo. Aiming for Rooseveltian grandeur, Obama described his Four Pillars for the Future, which including the traditional security agenda as well as environmental sustainability and more balanced economic growth. This part of the speech was a success, a judicious mix of toughness and high-minded internationalism. With this speech, Obama may have extended his international honeymoon. But as the president continues to raise the expectations of his most ardent admirers, he is at risk of disappointing them. The end result just might be an upsurge in anti-American sentiment.
• Reza Aslan: The Skunk at the U.N.There’s no denying that the president is at his best on the international stage. His gift for reaching across deep divides and healing historical wounds has resonated with audiences from Berlin to Cairo. While the president’s job approval numbers have drifted downward at home, he retains a level of global popularity that few public figures ever reach, popes included. But one of the great ironies of anti-Americanism is that it is precisely the most fervent anti-Americans who are most convinced of America’s tremendous power. As it’s the world’s richest and strongest country, with more than a fifth of global GDP and a military that can topple virtually any government, there are those who believe that America’s failure to solve the world’s most pressing problems is a simple matter of selfishness. When a financial crisis struck East Asia’s fastest-growing economies in the late 1990s, Malaysia’s then-prime minister famously blamed George Soros and a clique of New York-based international bankers for sabotaging a potential rival to the West. Similar rumblings can be heard throughout the world in the wake of the most recent financial crisis, one that has hit the developing world far harder than the strapped American middle class.But of course this reflects an almost ingenuousness, as the United States faces its own serious weaknesses. Our constitutional system is designed to restrain the exercise of power, as Obama has been reminded in the course of the interminable debate over health reform. And our massive debt burden has left American taxpayers in a decidedly ungenerous mood, one that will put the brakes on any effort to finance poverty-fighting and other global efforts. It is this defensive and anxious American middle class that will determine Obama’s political future.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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nikkya
it amazes me that there is so much pessimism and hope that the pres will fail at whateverhe does and then we listen to a lot of people from other countries as to how we should view our president "really amazing"
Llplo99
Reihan once said he loved Sarah Palin after her resignation speech. How much credibility can you give someone like that?
Phoebe2
A friend forwarded this to me, I think it captures Obama perfectly:
"The president without a country"
"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June 2007
" America has been arrogant." - President Barack Obama
"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."- President Barack Obama
"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009
Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he's president of.
My thoughts....what an embarrassment!
Prince-O
Stop Nit-picking.. I believe he still rules more than half of America...
hithere3
He's president of ALL of America. It's just that the racists are in denial.
oldpunk
The president without a country ? Who voted him into power ? Americans? In a democratic Election?
America has been arrogant ? It has a bit.
After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals? It started a War & a anti immigrant feeling that is nothing like the statement on the Statue of Liberty .
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."..............unless they need Health Care
You might say that America is a Muslim nation ? Just as much as any other religion , was Freedom of religion one of the reasons the country was formed in the 1st place.
If as a christian you do not like it try Turning the other cheek ?
AlanD2
oldpunk: I think torture would qualify as not always live up to our ideals.
I wasn't too thrilled about being lied into the Iraq war either.
Uncommonsense
Getting your news and instructions how to think from a forwarded email. Lovely. I have spam filters so I don't have to deal with this offal. Please don't bring it here.
AlanD2
Phoebe2: I agree. Your thoughts are indeed an embarrassment...
hithere3
Reihan Salam: DB's most rofltastic contributor. And he has Meghan McCain to compete with!
Zagama
Christians do not represent this entire country...America has been and continues to be arrogant..after 911 ...that statement is true. The Muslim comment...taken completely out of context. Picking out phrases to suit your thinking.
AlanD2
Atheists are up to 15% of all Americans in a recent poll.
crngndmhm
Amen? to that.
larry278
Reihan Salam's prose is as analytical as a piece in the UK's Economist. It lead me to find it strange that he spelled a common word, tire, not, tyre. That is what an American gets for reading things from the rest of the English using world.
FWIW, this guy has made the English language his slave; it does exactly what he wants it to do. Like or dislike his views, this man is a past master in the art of rhetoric. He makes reading into a pleasure.
This ends my gushing praise for Reihan Salam, Ms Brown & the Daily Beast for using Reihan Salam's work.
hithere3
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you forget to medicate this morning.
sonofloud
What ever happens, the mainstream media will be WOW'd, well except for Fox.
aackc1
Obama has to stop pandering to the Unions. First he is the first US President to break all bond covenants in giving majority ownership of GM & Chrysler to the Unions when they owned less then 15% of the bonds. He literally broke the laws of bankruptcy that are to protect bondholders. Now he throws a tariff bone to them, great job. Let's piss of the Chinese. They only hold 7% of our outstanding debt and are largest purchaser of our auction Treasury markets.
This guy is a rhetorical, teleprompter joke.
BTW, I disagree with president so I must be racist!
hithere3
if you are thinking about whether or not you are a racist, then feel it's important enough to comment on, perhaps you ARE one.
pious1001
Obama, The Great Apologist, I don't think another appearance on late night tv is going to help either, the man is an empty vessel (eloquent perhaps but empty nonetheless). Obama is this generations Jimmy Carter.
crngndmhm
Oh pious one, why not fall to your knees and pray for something better then.
Frenchmanaz
aackc1...when I read your post I almost fell off my chair laughing.
Why ? because as I was reading it I was just picturing what your comment would have been if Obama had proposed increasing the tariff but then decided to back away from it.
" Could Obama be any more spineless, choosing to favor the Chinese over our unions...Why don't we just pull down the stars and stripes and replace it with a Chinese flag...Obama is gutless "
LMAO !!!! You anti Obama crack me the hell up. The party of no, you guys just keep proving this day in and day out but with every new day I am reminded of how little there is left in the collective brain of right wingers.
So you favor trade tariff breaks to the Chinese over trying to find ways to correct the horrendous global trade imbalances that currently exist, most of which negatively effect our nation ? You favor China over our unions ?
We do owe the Chinese a great deal and do need to keep them happy, but how much is enough ? They have been raping us for years and let's be clear that they have not lent us all this money for nothing. Besides of course having to pay all of this money back, at some point, with interest, our economic health is critical to theirs. If our economy is in the crapper, there is really no one to buy all of the crap they churn out day in and day out. So despite how much we owe them in borrowed funds, they are nothing without us. Obama played this perfectly.
Besides of course the Chinese, Obama also sent a shot across the bow of every country that has been enjoying ridiculously low trade tariffs while America, when trying to ship product to every one of them, gets nailed to the wall.
You guys bitch about government spending etc and when Obama tries to find an alternative way of finding money to help our struggling car industry that will not involve our tax dollar bail out you are still not satisfied.
Why Obama even keeps trying to reach out to people like yourself is beyond me.
I just can't believe that I just read a comment from an American chastising our President for increasing a tariff that favor our nation.
It just proves how completely ridiculous the opposition to this man has become.
And we the ones accused of being anti American.
This is one for the books, unless of course, your writing to us from China, in which case...well too bad !
antgne
I love Obama and am willing to give him a chance. His success is our (this country's) success so we should all support him and help him do his job. Enough with the mean-spirited criticisms.
Thank you.
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