Obama's Pacific Trip Encounters Rough Waters

The Prof · 11-19-09, 08:19 PM

1. From the NY Times.

2. The Grey Lady lambastes the Apologist's perambulation across Asia as a "long, uphill slog."

3. Obama has LOST the MSM, they've turned on him.

4. Every headline hurts.

5. The journey jumpstarted in Japan with the BOW so low even the natives were nonplussed.

6. The last time Obama bent before Arabia's Abdullah in Buckhingham Palace he DENIED he'd done it 24 hours later.

7. If there's nothing wrong, why withdraw?

8. If you went out of your way to say you didn't before, why now?

9. In a chestnut, the Nobelist needed from Nippon a narrower alliance against the Giant.

10. The Emperor envied none of it.

11. On the big issues the president was stiffed in the East at every turn.

12. China has indicated complete recalcitrance when it comes to sanctioning Iran, for instance.

13. Renegotiating currency was similarly nixed by the nascent Nitzscheans in Peking.

14. And in Singapore, Hu personally repulsed the president's plans for international climate controls, insisting instead that rich countries must underwrite emergent third worlders, to the tune of tens of billions.

15. That is, Hu, clad in his very own crimson kimono, spoke out PERSONALLY over capers, killing climate accords.

16. Ouch.

17. Hu then whispered to Obama that China cannot afford to invest any longer in a United States approaching Chapter 11.

18. Obama, therefore, out of all character, conveyed to Fox's Major Garrett Tuesday that he was suddenly concerned about endless spending possibly leading to a double dip recession.

19. Health care reform is beyond our means, intimated the communists.

20. Obama's "Mandarin Town Hall" was prepacked with party apparatchiks.

21. And Peking pulled the plug on the proceedings, so the president was preaching essentially to a parlor almost as empty as Barbara Boxer's EPW hearing.

22. Where's the openness?

23. Citing scheduling conflicts, Obama steered clear of any contact with Chinese liberals, free speech advocates, even average Chinese citizens.

24. His last day in the Land of the Dragon was spent in touristy sightseeing, the Wall, the Forbidden City, both swept clean of the usual crowds of civilians by the caesars in charge.

25. Where's the reaching out?

26. But then, how could the Ditherer declare for individual freedom after having so undignifiedly dissed the Dalai Lama in DC?

27. And when it comes to Kim...

28. These opening steps by our "first Pacific president" spelled complete catastrophe.

29. He's shrinking, more miniscule than that midget Emperor.

30. Listen to the Lady:

Quote:

For all of President Obama’s laying claim to the title of “America’s first Pacific president,” Asia was always going to be a tough nut for him to crack.

Without a popular gesture like elevating the plight of the Palestinian people to equal status of the Israelis, he would not be showered with the kind of praise he got for his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo.

And without a stop in Indonesia, his boyhood home, he would not bask in the kind of adulation he received in Accra, Ghana.

Instead, with the novelty of a visit as America’s first black president having given way to the reality of having to plow through intractable issues like monetary policy (China), trade (Singapore, China, South Korea), security (Japan) and the 800-pound gorilla on the continent (China), Mr. Obama’s Asia trip has been, in many ways, a long, uphill slog.

So it is no wonder that on the last day of the toughest part of his trip — the China part — Mr. Obama took a hike: a brisk, bracing 30-minute climb up the Great Wall. Around 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Obama’s mile-long motorcade arrived at the Badaling section of the Great Wall, which snakes over jagged, rocky mountains.

Visitors to that touristy section of the wall generally encounter a cacophonous melee of vendors, but on this day, the place was like a ghost town, courtesy of the Chinese authorities who had shut it down. (The same thing happened Tuesday when Mr. Obama sped through an empty-but-for-his-entourage Forbidden City.)

Even the two sightseeing trips did not offer a total respite, however, as they were prominent, well-publicized examples of what Mr. Obama did not do in China. He steered clear of public meetings with Chinese liberals, free press advocates and even average Chinese, with his aides citing scheduling conflicts. Mr. Obama did, though, give an interview on Wednesday morning to Southern Weekly, one of China’s most popular newspapers, sometimes known for poking the authorities by breaking news on delicate subjects.

Still, for an American president who has tried to make openness a hallmark of his public persona, it was a departure, made more stark since Chinese authorities largely hijacked Mr. Obama’s one other attempt at a give and take with Chinese students, a town hall meeting in Shanghai, by stuffing the auditorium with young Communist Party aspirants.

A week ago, when Mr. Obama kicked off his trip in Japan, things were not so grim. Tokyo welcomed him as much as a celebrity as a world leader, with cries of “Obama-san!” from the people who gathered in the rain to watch his motorcade pass. Local newspapers gushed about how he told his Japanese hosts that he wanted to eat tuna and Kobe beef. Even the ballyhoo from right-wing bloggers back at home over Mr. Obama’s deep bow to Emperor Akihito did not seem to dent Mr. Obama’s image in Japan; his aides said he was unfazed by the criticism.

But Mr. Obama quickly discovered that popularity on the Asian streets did not necessarily translate into policy successes behind closed doors in the Kantei, the Japanese White House, let alone in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Political analysts in Japan gave Mr. Obama high marks for what was one of his principal goals: improving communication with Japan’s outspoken new leaders.

But the trip managed only to paper over some of the recent differences between the sides, like the contentious issue of the relocation of an unpopular Marine air base in Futenma, on the southern island of Okinawa. Mr. Obama and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama could not solve that issue, instead merely deferring a tough decision by agreeing to form a working group to look at the relocation problem.

One former Japanese diplomat praised the president for showing patience and avoiding mishaps that would have further tarnished the relationship. The former diplomat, Kunihiko Miyake, who now teaches international affairs at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, said the United States and Japan still did not see eye to eye on their single biggest bilateral issue: how to make their cold-war-era alliance relevant in a region where the balance of power had been upset by China’s rise.

“The two countries are in the same bed, but dreaming different dreams,” Mr. Miyake said. “The Americans want the alliance to be stronger, but the Japanese seem to want to do less.”

Mr. Obama’s next stop was Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, best known for its quaint custom of making all the leaders wear the same style of colorful shirt, helpfully supplied by the host country. Mr. Obama, in blue, wore a brave grin in the group photo, flanked by the red-shirted Singaporean prime minister and an identical blue-shirted Indonesian president.

This year, APEC made headlines, though not the sort Mr. Obama might have liked. With a deadline looming for a big climate change conference in Copenhagen, the leaders convened a hastily called breakfast meeting to acknowledge that they would not be able to resolve entrenched differences in time.

And then, Mr. Obama departed for China, where the authorities stage-managed and restricted access to his town hall meeting in Shanghai. He did offer a nuanced, oblique critique of China’s rigid controls and restrictions of the Internet and free speech without mentioning, let alone condemning, China’s government.

Mr. Obama and President Hu Jintao presented their two days of talks as substantive, even though they did not appear to make much progress on issues like Iran, China’s currency or human rights. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, took the unusual step of sending a statement to reporters — something he did not do for either stop in Japan or Singapore — saying the China trip went well.

In Seoul, where Mr. Obama ends his trip, he will have perhaps his easiest leg. South Korea is a longtime ally that has been cooperating with the United States on vital issues like North Korea and does not appear to have any big ax to grind with the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/wo...sess.html?_r=1

The Prof

Councilman · 11-19-09, 08:40 PM

In an attempt to boil down the interminably long and bombastic op into a shorter form, I give you my interpretation of it.

As Obama danced his way through his Pacific Trip he was not the smash hit he expected to be, and his goals fell well short of their marks. Suffice to say Obama can fool some of the fools some of the time but the world is catching on to his BS.
I hope I didn't over simplify it.

The Prof · 11-19-09, 11:18 PM

you get the gist, good

but, yes, very much, you oversimplify

you left out:

it was the NEW YORK TIMES which savaged him and his bad trip

the BOW backfiring amongst the bushidos themselves

obama's bid rebuffed for closer ties to the Rising Sun

china's recalcitrance concerning iran

china's refusal to negotiate the currency

china's killing climate accords, hu PERSONALLY delivering the message---IN PUBLIC

that had to be perhaps the single most embarrassing moment yet experienced by our obtuse obama

hu's direction that obama stop the free spending and switch to fiscal responsibility

the communists packing the townhall and pulling the plug

obama's refusal to meet with liberalizing voices of freedom, just like he dissed the dalai lama

what's he get in return for all his suckup cooperation?

lack of progress relative to north korea

these are the particulars that give the TIMES' piece its punch

no worries, i know you know i don't mind repeating them

RDS · 11-19-09, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Councilman

In an attempt to boil down the interminably long and bombastic op into a shorter form, I give you my interpretation of it.

As Obama danced his way through his Pacific Trip he was not the smash hit he expected to be, and his goals fell well short of their marks. Suffice to say Obama can fool some of the fools some of the time but the world is catching on to his BS.
I hope I didn't over simplify it.

We are not fools. It takes a fool to call another.

Councilman · 11-20-09, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prof

you get the gist, good

but, yes, very much, you oversimplify

you left out:

it was the NEW YORK TIMES which savaged him and his bad trip

the BOW backfiring amongst the bushidos themselves

obama's bid rebuffed for closer ties to the Rising Sun

china's recalcitrance concerning iran

china's refusal to negotiate the currency

china's killing climate accords, hu PERSONALLY delivering the message---IN PUBLIC

that had to be perhaps the single most embarrassing moment yet experienced by our obtuse obama

hu's direction that obama stop the free spending and switch to fiscal responsibility

the communists packing the townhall and pulling the plug

obama's refusal to meet with liberalizing voices of freedom, just like he dissed the dalai lama

what's he get in return for all his suckup cooperation?

lack of progress relative to north korea

these are the particulars that give the TIMES' piece its punch

no worries, i know you know i don't mind repeating them

I thought that's what I said.

Don't let it get to you I was kidding Sorry.

Albert Di Salvo · 11-20-09, 12:41 AM

Many of the people with whom I do business are Chinese. Their laughter hurts. Even my Chinese in-laws laugh at us. Obama makes me ashamed.

The Prof · 11-22-09, 12:30 PM

stephy on the topic this morning, abc:

he shows the clip of obama's "mandarin town hall," spouting about free expression on the internet

stephy---but the chinese pulled the plug, he said he accomplished agreements with hu behind closed doors, but here the door's really closed

george will---it's an insult to the president, so calculated, his press conference with chinese reporters where no questions were allowed, if bush were exposed to such embarrassment the beltway would go ballistic (will, like myself, loves his alliteration)

stephy premises---bush would have faced more criticism

robert reich(!)---i don't know what obama's objectives were, no goals, no results, he appears open to change, weak, used by the chinese, they own the US, we need them more than they need us

will---they need us to buy flat screens and microwaves

stephy---the chinese show fear of their own people

liz cheney---no progress on IRAN, he's naive to have not met with the dalai lama, nothing accomplished, style over substance, each trip weakens us, he's willing to let the chinese stage manage his trip

reich---i agree with liz, he needs to put more thought into the appearance of weakness

on afghanistan, liz---someone should remind obama that he already has committed troops

will---the dems will not vote for afghanistan

liz---republicans will, it's george will who doesn't support the war

reich---karzai's not reliable

liz---the last time we left afghanistan the taliban came and 9-11 happened, pakistan is it, afghans don't believe obama is committed

will---what's at stake for the afghan farmer, go with the taliban which is indigenous or obama's united states?

Albert Di Salvo · 11-22-09, 05:08 PM

Check it out:

MsUnderestimated Blog Archive SNL: Obama & Jintao Press Conference in Beijing (VIDEO)

11-19-09, 08:40 PM	#2
Councilman Professor Join Date: Apr 2009 Last Seen: Today 10:19 AM Location: Riverside, County, CA. Posts: 1,336 Thanks: 74 Thanked 528 Times in 320 Posts Lean: Slightly Conservative Gender:	Re: Obama's Pacific Trip Encounters Rough Waters In an attempt to boil down the interminably long and bombastic op into a shorter form, I give you my interpretation of it. As Obama danced his way through his Pacific Trip he was not the smash hit he expected to be, and his goals fell well short of their marks. Suffice to say Obama can fool some of the fools some of the time but the world is catching on to his BS. I hope I didn't over simplify it.

11-19-09, 11:18 PM	#3
The Prof Guru Join Date: Jul 2009 Last Seen: Today 10:34 AM Posts: 2,708 Thanks: 87 Thanked 358 Times in 270 Posts	Re: Obama's Pacific Trip Encounters Rough Waters you get the gist, good but, yes, very much, you oversimplify you left out: it was the NEW YORK TIMES which savaged him and his bad trip the BOW backfiring amongst the bushidos themselves obama's bid rebuffed for closer ties to the Rising Sun china's recalcitrance concerning iran china's refusal to negotiate the currency china's killing climate accords, hu PERSONALLY delivering the message---IN PUBLIC that had to be perhaps the single most embarrassing moment yet experienced by our obtuse obama hu's direction that obama stop the free spending and switch to fiscal responsibility the communists packing the townhall and pulling the plug obama's refusal to meet with liberalizing voices of freedom, just like he dissed the dalai lama what's he get in return for all his suckup cooperation? lack of progress relative to north korea these are the particulars that give the TIMES' piece its punch no worries, i know you know i don't mind repeating them

11-20-09, 12:41 AM	#6
Albert Di Salvo Student Join Date: Oct 2009 Last Seen: 12-29-09 06:53 PM Location: Overlooking Monterey Bay Posts: 263 Thanks: 11 Thanked 48 Times in 36 Posts	Re: Obama's Pacific Trip Encounters Rough Waters Many of the people with whom I do business are Chinese. Their laughter hurts. Even my Chinese in-laws laugh at us. Obama makes me ashamed.

11-22-09, 12:30 PM	#7
The Prof Guru Join Date: Jul 2009 Last Seen: Today 10:34 AM Posts: 2,708 Thanks: 87 Thanked 358 Times in 270 Posts	Re: Obama's Pacific Trip Encounters Rough Waters stephy on the topic this morning, abc: he shows the clip of obama's "mandarin town hall," spouting about free expression on the internet stephy---but the chinese pulled the plug, he said he accomplished agreements with hu behind closed doors, but here the door's really closed george will---it's an insult to the president, so calculated, his press conference with chinese reporters where no questions were allowed, if bush were exposed to such embarrassment the beltway would go ballistic (will, like myself, loves his alliteration) stephy premises---bush would have faced more criticism robert reich(!)---i don't know what obama's objectives were, no goals, no results, he appears open to change, weak, used by the chinese, they own the US, we need them more than they need us will---they need us to buy flat screens and microwaves stephy---the chinese show fear of their own people liz cheney---no progress on IRAN, he's naive to have not met with the dalai lama, nothing accomplished, style over substance, each trip weakens us, he's willing to let the chinese stage manage his trip reich---i agree with liz, he needs to put more thought into the appearance of weakness on afghanistan, liz---someone should remind obama that he already has committed troops will---the dems will not vote for afghanistan liz---republicans will, it's george will who doesn't support the war reich---karzai's not reliable liz---the last time we left afghanistan the taliban came and 9-11 happened, pakistan is it, afghans don't believe obama is committed will---what's at stake for the afghan farmer, go with the taliban which is indigenous or obama's united states?

11-22-09, 05:08 PM	#8
Albert Di Salvo Student Join Date: Oct 2009 Last Seen: 12-29-09 06:53 PM Location: Overlooking Monterey Bay Posts: 263 Thanks: 11 Thanked 48 Times in 36 Posts	Re: Obama's Pacific Trip Encounters Rough Waters Check it out: MsUnderestimated Blog Archive SNL: Obama & Jintao Press Conference in Beijing (VIDEO)

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