When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it’s not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.
Obama visited a new China, an economic power that is now making its own demands. America should clean up its government finances, and the weak dollar is unacceptable, the head of the Chinese banking authority said, just as Obama’s plane was about to land.
Even the president seems to have lost his faith in a genial foreign policy. The approach that was being used in Afghanistan this spring, with its strong emphasis on civilian reconstruction, is already being changed. “We’re searching for an exit strategy,” said a staff member with the National Security Council on the sidelines of the Asia trip.
via US Foreign Policy: Obama’s Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International
Seriously, though? Obama is not our king. When did the executive branch take charge of monetary policy? Of foreign policy? This isn’t to say that the president isn’t de facto in charge of those things — Congress has surrendered far too many of their constitutional responsibilities to him. The office of President is a distraction: it’s the Congress who is ultimately responsible for our woes. And when it comes right down to it, we can hardly even blame Congress. It is the people who elect them.
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