Research

Welcome Back, Mr. President

President Obama must be thrilled to get back to the White House tonight: it’s been a long week abroad.  We were told President Obama would “rely heavily on oratory and personal popularity to try to boost U.S. influence” on his trip, but unfortunately for Obama, his eloquence and charm did not translate into results.  As Mike Allen of Politico writes:

President Barack Obama returns from his maiden Asian swing with none of the concrete accomplishments that White Houses typically put in place before big trips, setting up a stark test for his idealistic theory that the United States should act more like a wise neighbor than a swaggering superpower.

And The Washington Post noted President Obama will return with no foreign breakthroughs.

But is his biography-as-diplomacy approach beginning to show its limits?  Obama does not fly home with any big breakthroughs or any evidence that he has forged stronger personal ties with regional leaders.

But leave it to the White House to begin the spin machine, with a senior administration official saying “President Obama put our alliances on a firmer footing, reasserted our leadership in the region, and continued to advance a complicated bilateral relationship with China that will play a large role in shaping the 21st century.”  Too bad the White House could not be further from the truth, as “the Chinese in turn rebuffed longstanding U.S. concerns – whether on human rights, Iran or currency policy – in a heavily stage-managed visit where China, not Obama, clearly sought the upper hand.”

So much for reasserting leadership in the region.  Was it a long flight home?