Lets look at Obama's Tour to Europe and Turkey. At the G20 he failed to get the other countries to spend on an economic stimulus, the EU and others wanted more regulation. Even UK PM Gordon Brown was not much help, the Governor of the Bank of England has placed a veto any more government spending. The press are still in love with Obama, so they clapped at his failure. At NATO the President stated the following, " Our allies and partners have already agreed to provide approximately 5,000 troops and trainers to advance our new strategy, as well as increased civilian assistance. " After the spin we have the reality, no new combat troops, the UK is sending another 900 soldiers, they will be sent to the South, they are needed, experts expect heavy fighting this year. On to Prague and the President wants to remove all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth, this was a view supported by President Reagan. In Prague the President stated the following on North Korea and its missile launch, " Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response -- (applause) -- now is the time for a strong international response, and North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons. All nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime. And that's why we must stand shoulder to shoulder to pressure the North Koreans to change course. " Obama took North Korea to the UN, well China and Russia have veto power, thus North Korea has gotten away with it again, as they did under Bill Clinton and Bush 43. The final stage was Turkey, the US press seems to be showing some critical reaction of Obama, the first question was how Obama as a Senator supported the placing of the Armenian Massacre in Turkey at the time of the WW1 as a Holocaust, thus as President did he hold the same views. Obama managed to have it both ways, he kept to his original views without stating them again but hoped for a better relationship between Turkey and Armenia. Ronald Reagan in 1988 opposed this move to place the massacre as a Holocaust, we need Turkey in the present international climate, lets deal with historical issues at another time. Thus Reagan unlike Obama never allowed himself to be held hostage to political fortune.
Thus Obama has had a great few days on the public relations front, great spin. The problem is that he has got nothing for this when it comes to policy. Thus a question is it better to be feared as a President of the United States or loved, it can be argued that Nixon and Reagan knew how to pull the strings of Europe and Soviet Union, thus they had policy success while Obama is loved but World leaders do not fear him, thus expect Iran to get nuclear, expect more trouble with North Korea, expect Afghanistan to get worse. This is why Obama will be a one term President, he will be out on his ear in 2012.
