soonercruiser
6/18/2012, 02:04 PM
Trust the lefties at the New York Slimes to help make excuses for Obama on why he has such a poor record in office!
THere was just too big a hole to dig out of; there is just too much about the economy that is dependant on other nations; there is just too much uncertaintly in the Middle East; the job is just to big & hard for one man!
Anybody old enough to remember this approach defending Jimmy Carter?
Yes! This is what the left said about Jimmy Carter too!
And, they are correct! The job of President is too big for one liberal who tries to micromanage the U.S. economy!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/world/obama-re-election-complicated-by-world-events.html?_r=1&hp
Excerpts follow.....
In a World of Complications, Obama Faces a Re-election Test
By PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON — For Barack Obama, a president who set out to restore good relations with the world in his first term, the world does not seem to be cooperating all that much with his bid to win a second.
That reality has been on vivid display in recent days. Europe has seemed unable to contain its rolling economic crisis to just Greece. The Syrian conflict has intensified as the United Nations suspended its observers’ mission amid the violence. Egypt’s popular revolution is at risk of being reversed by the military. And the Russians are cracking down at home and rattling sabers abroad.
As President Obama left on Sunday for an international summit meeting in Mexico, the daunting array of overseas issues underscored the challenges for an incumbent who is trying to manage global affairs while arguing a case for re-election. Although American voters are not particularly focused on foreign policy in a time of economic trouble, the rest of the world has a way of occupying a president’s time and intruding on his best-laid campaign plans.
If anything, the dire headlines from around the world only reinforce an uncomfortable reality for this president and any of his successors: even the world’s last superpower has only so much control over events beyond its borders, and its own course can be dramatically affected in some cases. Whether from ripples of the European fiscal crisis or flare-ups of violence in Baghdad, it is easy to be whipsawed by events......
.....
Some Romney advisers said Mr. Obama was too willing to avoid accountability by presenting himself as a powerless bystander.
“I’ve still got my day job,” says President Obama, who met with leaders of the euro zone at Camp David, Md., last month.
“Both candidates have to pretend that the U.S. presidency is far more influential over events than it really is,” said Stephen D. Biddle, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. The obvious example is the European economic situation, which has profound implications for the American economy but is largely out of American hands.
“But to admit this is to look weak or to seem to evade responsibility,” Mr. Biddle said. “So both candidates tacitly agree to pretend that their policies are capable of righting the American economy while their opponent’s would sink it, when the reality is that both are in thrall to foreigners’ choices to a degree that neither would acknowledge.”
The president will talk with European leaders about pulling out of the financial spiral after Sunday’s election in Greece, which gave the pro-bailout party a slim victory and the right to form a coalition government. He will also meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia just days after the Obama administration accused Moscow of supplying arms to Syria in its bloody crackdown on the uprising there.
Yet Mr. Romney has occasionally turned to foreign policy to bolster his broader attempt to portray Mr. Obama as a failed president. On Saturday, he told a conservative coalition that when it came to Israel, he would “just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite.” On the CBS News program “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Mr. Romney said that on Iran “I would be willing to take military action, if necessary, to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world.”
Some Romney advisers said Mr. Obama was too willing to avoid accountability by presenting himself as a powerless bystander.
“These crises reflect an absence of leadership from the Obama administration,” said Kristen Silverberg, a former State Department official under President George W. Bush who is advising Mr. Romney. “He sat out the Iran protests, has faltered on Syria and let the Russians know he’ll be even more ‘flexible’ after our election. Global security and the strength of the global economy depend on strong U.S. leadership and a president who believes in America’s role in the world.”
Jamie M. Fly, executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, a conservative group, said there was a growing sense “that what is required is American leadership rather than the president’s leading-from-behind foreign policy that has failed to address an imploding Syria, a nuclearizing Iran, an economic crisis in Europe and a revanchist Russia.”
He is the “first real national security Democrat” since President John F. Kennedy, said James M. Goldgeier, dean of American University’s School of International Service. “He looks and acts like a commander in chief. So yes, the euro crisis, Syria, Iran, etc., can cause him problems. But Romney has his work cut out for him on foreign policy.”
But for all the attention on Syria, Egypt and other areas of conflict, the most important crisis for Mr. Obama remains the European economy because of its impact at home. “Europe’s weakness is likely to blow back on Obama’s efforts this fall — just at the wrong time,” she said. “He’ll have to run harder because of it.”
THere was just too big a hole to dig out of; there is just too much about the economy that is dependant on other nations; there is just too much uncertaintly in the Middle East; the job is just to big & hard for one man!
Anybody old enough to remember this approach defending Jimmy Carter?
Yes! This is what the left said about Jimmy Carter too!
And, they are correct! The job of President is too big for one liberal who tries to micromanage the U.S. economy!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/world/obama-re-election-complicated-by-world-events.html?_r=1&hp
Excerpts follow.....
In a World of Complications, Obama Faces a Re-election Test
By PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON — For Barack Obama, a president who set out to restore good relations with the world in his first term, the world does not seem to be cooperating all that much with his bid to win a second.
That reality has been on vivid display in recent days. Europe has seemed unable to contain its rolling economic crisis to just Greece. The Syrian conflict has intensified as the United Nations suspended its observers’ mission amid the violence. Egypt’s popular revolution is at risk of being reversed by the military. And the Russians are cracking down at home and rattling sabers abroad.
As President Obama left on Sunday for an international summit meeting in Mexico, the daunting array of overseas issues underscored the challenges for an incumbent who is trying to manage global affairs while arguing a case for re-election. Although American voters are not particularly focused on foreign policy in a time of economic trouble, the rest of the world has a way of occupying a president’s time and intruding on his best-laid campaign plans.
If anything, the dire headlines from around the world only reinforce an uncomfortable reality for this president and any of his successors: even the world’s last superpower has only so much control over events beyond its borders, and its own course can be dramatically affected in some cases. Whether from ripples of the European fiscal crisis or flare-ups of violence in Baghdad, it is easy to be whipsawed by events......
.....
Some Romney advisers said Mr. Obama was too willing to avoid accountability by presenting himself as a powerless bystander.
“I’ve still got my day job,” says President Obama, who met with leaders of the euro zone at Camp David, Md., last month.
“Both candidates have to pretend that the U.S. presidency is far more influential over events than it really is,” said Stephen D. Biddle, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. The obvious example is the European economic situation, which has profound implications for the American economy but is largely out of American hands.
“But to admit this is to look weak or to seem to evade responsibility,” Mr. Biddle said. “So both candidates tacitly agree to pretend that their policies are capable of righting the American economy while their opponent’s would sink it, when the reality is that both are in thrall to foreigners’ choices to a degree that neither would acknowledge.”
The president will talk with European leaders about pulling out of the financial spiral after Sunday’s election in Greece, which gave the pro-bailout party a slim victory and the right to form a coalition government. He will also meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia just days after the Obama administration accused Moscow of supplying arms to Syria in its bloody crackdown on the uprising there.
Yet Mr. Romney has occasionally turned to foreign policy to bolster his broader attempt to portray Mr. Obama as a failed president. On Saturday, he told a conservative coalition that when it came to Israel, he would “just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite.” On the CBS News program “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Mr. Romney said that on Iran “I would be willing to take military action, if necessary, to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world.”
Some Romney advisers said Mr. Obama was too willing to avoid accountability by presenting himself as a powerless bystander.
“These crises reflect an absence of leadership from the Obama administration,” said Kristen Silverberg, a former State Department official under President George W. Bush who is advising Mr. Romney. “He sat out the Iran protests, has faltered on Syria and let the Russians know he’ll be even more ‘flexible’ after our election. Global security and the strength of the global economy depend on strong U.S. leadership and a president who believes in America’s role in the world.”
Jamie M. Fly, executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, a conservative group, said there was a growing sense “that what is required is American leadership rather than the president’s leading-from-behind foreign policy that has failed to address an imploding Syria, a nuclearizing Iran, an economic crisis in Europe and a revanchist Russia.”
He is the “first real national security Democrat” since President John F. Kennedy, said James M. Goldgeier, dean of American University’s School of International Service. “He looks and acts like a commander in chief. So yes, the euro crisis, Syria, Iran, etc., can cause him problems. But Romney has his work cut out for him on foreign policy.”
But for all the attention on Syria, Egypt and other areas of conflict, the most important crisis for Mr. Obama remains the European economy because of its impact at home. “Europe’s weakness is likely to blow back on Obama’s efforts this fall — just at the wrong time,” she said. “He’ll have to run harder because of it.”