USA Today is running one of the unintentionally funniest articles I have seen in a long time. It is headlined: Obama Shines On World Stage. The point of the article is that polling around the world shows that the people have a higher opinion of Obama than of any other world political leader. Indeed, the biggest point made by the article is that Obama polls better in 20 developed countries than does Vladimir Putin the Russian president. This is supposed to be proof positive of the greatness of Obama. Oh, and let's not forget that Obama also polls better in these 20 countries than Angela Merkel of Germany.
The polls cited are nonsense. First of all, Merkel has been the principal voice in Europe stopping the EU from bailing out all of the troubled nations in that group. Does anyone really believe that Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese or Irish voters will have a high opinion of such a person? But these are five of the twenty nations polled. Vladimir Putin is the former KGB official who has stamped out opposition in Russia in a dictatorial manner and who has threatened his neighbors with things like cutting off the flow of natural gas and oil supplied by the Russians in order to get his way. Does anyone really believe that the Eastern European nations that only freed themselves from bondage to the Russians in the last twenty years are going to have a high opinion of a Russian despot who clearly is seeking to re-establish control over their countries?
The real truth is that president Obama has just been made to look like a fool to the entire world, although many folks were not paying attention. Obama and his people went from screaming about the urgent need to act regarding Syria to a "nevermind" approach that stops any plan of action until Congress rules on whether or not America should go ahead. This is not a comment on whether or not congressional approval is needed; it is. Obama, however, well knows that the Constitution requires approval, yet he announced to the world (through Kerry, Biden and others) that America would act. His backtracking makes him look foolish.
My guess is that there are folks all around the world who are laughing at Obama. No fixed poll results will change that. The man is a disaster.
The polls cited are nonsense. First of all, Merkel has been the principal voice in Europe stopping the EU from bailing out all of the troubled nations in that group. Does anyone really believe that Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese or Irish voters will have a high opinion of such a person? But these are five of the twenty nations polled. Vladimir Putin is the former KGB official who has stamped out opposition in Russia in a dictatorial manner and who has threatened his neighbors with things like cutting off the flow of natural gas and oil supplied by the Russians in order to get his way. Does anyone really believe that the Eastern European nations that only freed themselves from bondage to the Russians in the last twenty years are going to have a high opinion of a Russian despot who clearly is seeking to re-establish control over their countries?
The real truth is that president Obama has just been made to look like a fool to the entire world, although many folks were not paying attention. Obama and his people went from screaming about the urgent need to act regarding Syria to a "nevermind" approach that stops any plan of action until Congress rules on whether or not America should go ahead. This is not a comment on whether or not congressional approval is needed; it is. Obama, however, well knows that the Constitution requires approval, yet he announced to the world (through Kerry, Biden and others) that America would act. His backtracking makes him look foolish.
My guess is that there are folks all around the world who are laughing at Obama. No fixed poll results will change that. The man is a disaster.
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