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The Obama team is already on defense about the lack of accomplishments from the President’s failed Asia tour, so they are returning to their traditional standby answer of lashing out at the Bush administration.  Before even leaving for Washington, the Obama Administration accused President Bush of failing to lead on critical issues in Asia.  Not only is the White House trying to rewrite the impact of Obama’s trip to Asia, they are also trying rewrite the Bush Administration’s strong record on foreign policy issues in the region, claiming, “American leadership was absent from this region for the last several years.”

As one of our Founding Fathers, John Adams, once said, “facts are stubborn things.” They are indeed, and they speak for themselves: 

• In 2008 President Bush signed the landmark United States-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement, “a key foreign policy priority for both the Indian and US governments” that left a “significant and unprecedented legacy.”
  
  
• Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told President Bush in 2008 that "This may be my last visit to you during your presidency, and let me say, thank you very much. The people of India deeply love you."
  
  
• In 2003 President Bush also signed the U.S.- Singapore free trade agreement, the first free trade agreement between the United States and an Asian country.  This week “Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak urged President Barack Obama to show the same commitment to free trade that his predecessor.”
  
  
• Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said that “Without any doubt, Japan-US relations improved over the past eight years.”
  
  
• On President Bush’s final trip to Asia, the President “enjoyed warm praise both from Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. Both leaders said that their countries' relations with the United States improved under Bush.”
  
  
• President Bush also tried to pass a U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which was blocked by, among others, then-Sen. Barack Obama, as we noted yesterday.

Some absent leadership!  Instead of manufacturing specious accusations against the former administration to distract the public from the President’s disappointing trip to Asia, the Obama team ought to stick to achieving real results from their foreign policy initiatives.