The View of President Obama Abroad…

It was the universal drumbeat of the Democratic presidential candidates for the past two years that the Bush administration had alienated the world, especially Europe. While it is true that President Bush was not the darling of the average European throughout his tenure, it is accurate to say that he had, at the end of his administration, the respect of several leaders of Europe. Among them were: Blair and Brown of England; Merkel of Germany; Sarkozy of France; Berlusconi of Italy; Tusk of Poland; and Klaus of the Czech Republic.

President Obama campaigned on the promise to bring the U.S. into better relations with Europe and the world. In the G-20 summit in April, hosted by British PM Gordon Brown, Obama achieved a level of public approval that doubtless pleased the new president. However, his apologies for America’s past did not please conservatives here in the U.S.

Hungarian-born French President Nicolas Sarkozy was not all that impressed with Obama. The French President was more than critical of Obama in a candid conversation with members of Parliament saying “While US President Barack Obama is very intelligent and charismatic, he is not always at his best when it comes to decisions and efficiency… He has only been elected for two months and has never managed a ministry in his life.”

Previous reports including a controversial comment that “Obama is an empty suit.. and has an immature Iranian policy” alledged to have been made by Sarkozy as published in the Israeli publication, Haaretz, were later watered down by diplomatic double speak after the American press jumped on the French President. I would disagree that our President is an empty suit. It's what comes out of that suit that scares me.

Mirek Topolanek, who is running the EU presidency despite the collapse of his government in the Czech Republic, eight days before the G-20 meeting, warned the European Parliament that the Obama administration's stimulus package and financial bail-out "will undermine the stability of the global financial market. All of these steps, these combinations and permanency is the way to hell.”

However, publicly the President was warmly welcomed by most of the G-20 leaders. In Prague, following the G-20 summit, 20,000 people gathered to hear America’s new leader speak, and by all accounts Obama was a smashing success. His Czech appearance proved once again that he has the charm and tact it takes to work with any country—no matter how much it supports U.S. policies.

To the south of the U.S., at the April Summit of the Americas, the liberal press touted another marvel in world diplomacy when President Obama shook hands with Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez, who had this to say about President Obama less than a month before “He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he’s a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality.”

Over in Cuba, Raúl Castro had Obama pointing to “signs of progress” in relations of the U.S. with Cuba because of the Cuban leader’s statement that Cuba is willing to talk with the United States about "everything," including human rights and political prisoners.

However, before the press could digest that nice remark, brother Fidel Castro poured buckets of cold water on U.S. and Latin American leaders' speculation that we may be at the threshold of a new chapter in U.S.-Cuban relations. The former Cuban leader, who retired in 2006 but maintains loyalists in key positions of power, appeared to contradict his younger brother in written ''reflections'' published by Cuba's official press.

Fidel wrote that Obama had "misinterpreted" Raúl's remarks about Cuba's willingness to discuss human rights issues. According to Fidel, Raúl meant to say that Cuba would free political prisoners if the United States frees five Cubans convicted in the U.S. of spying for Cuba.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself. So much for Obama’s overtures to Iran to “make nice” with Israel and the rest of the world and abandon its goal of nuclear weapons.

After President Obama sought to engage Iran in talks on its nuclear program and other issues, Iranian leader Ahmadinejad, at a UN meeting in April, accused Israel of being the "most cruel and repressive racist regime" and blamed the U.S. invasion of Iraq on a Zionist conspiracy. So much for candidate Obama's pledge to engage our enemies with "no preconditions."

Over to Poland…. In February, Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons.

The letter to Russian President Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

The Poles placed great faith in the United States during the Bush administration. It took a huge risk trusting the U.S. to keep its word on the missile defense agreement. Now, that trust appears to have turned into a plea for continued support. However, the Obama administration appears to have other ideas, despite Secretary of State Clinton’s words recently: "As members of NATO, we take seriously our alliance commitments and I'm very confident that we will work through any issues that lie ahead -- on any front."

Poland wants the U.S. to honor its agreement to build a missile defense base in its country. Poland's president has said that scrapping the project to improve ties with Russia would be an unfriendly gesture toward Poland.

Then, there's China...Remember the February statement by Luo Ping, a director-general of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, explaining how China feels about having to continue to buy U.S. Treasuries:

“We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion… we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do….

The adulation of the new leader of the U.S. continues unabated in the liberal press here and abroad, but there have been, and will be, bumps ahead for the smiling, tele-prompted president. His "100 Days" news conference tonight was more of a campaign speech than a news conference with a predictable dozen or so questions, none of which touched on the economy. However, he was asked about FOCA...the bill to kill all anti-abortion state legislation. Reaffirming his pro-choice stance, at least he danced around the question, rather than answering it directly.

As an aside, over in the UK, in one of the responses to the You-Tube sensation British Conservative EU MP Daniel Hannan, who blogs daily for the UK Telegraph, "Catherine" wrote of PM Gordon Brown: "I wish Dear Leader would be quarantined if that would give us a break from seeing his face or hearing his blathering. Talk about overexposure."

I have difficulty keeping up with our own Dear Leader whose new ideas, the details of which change more often than the sun comes up each morning, have become obtrusive TV fare for millions of us in the U.S. Obama loves to appear on TV and he may pre-empt the daily soap operas with his own. If his first 100 days have him treading in more areas of the economy, foreign relations, and social issues than the feet of a centipede, let’s hope he doesn’t get tripped up. I’m sure he’s thought everything out, though, so there’s not much chance of mistakes in this administration. Right? You can take that to any of a number of our nationalized banks.