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Obama asks eurozone to keep Greece in until after Election Day

Kandahar

Kandahar

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American officials are understood to be worried that if they decide Greece has not done enough to meet its deficit targets and withhold the money, it would automatically trigger Greece's exit from the eurozone weeks before the Presidential election on 6 November. They are urging eurozone Governments to hold off from taking any drastic action before then – fearing that the resulting market destabilisation could damage President Obama's re-election prospects. European leaders are thought to be sympathetic to the lobbying fearing that, under pressure from his party lin Congress, Mitt Romney would be a more isolationist president than Mr Obama.

Obama asks eurozone to keep Greece in until after election day - Europe - World - The Independent
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I found this article fascinating. Obviously the Obama Administration has a strong political interest in holding off any eurozone collapse until after the election...I don't think anyone would deny that. If anything can doom his chances of reelection, it's another global financial crisis hitting just weeks before Election Day. But I thought this article was surprising for a couple reasons: I was surprised at how brazenly the Obama team is lobbying the EU to hold off until after the election, and I was surprised at how sympathetic and accommodating the EU governments are to his position.

What do you think? Is it appropriate for the Obama Administration to be lobbying foreign governments like this for his own political reasons? And is it appropriate for those foreign governments to listen to him?
 
Kandahar said:
I found this article fascinating. Obviously the Obama Administration has a strong political interest in holding off any eurozone collapse until after the election...I don't think anyone would deny that. If anything can doom his chances of reelection, it's another global financial crisis hitting just weeks before Election Day. But I thought this article was surprising for a couple reasons: I was surprised at how brazenly the Obama team is lobbying the EU to hold off until after the election, and I was surprised at how sympathetic and accommodating the EU governments are to his position.

What do you think? Is it appropriate for the Obama Administration to be lobbying foreign governments like this for his own political reasons? And is it appropriate for those foreign governments to listen to him?
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Of course a collapse of the euro would be huge and it would probably be equivalent to the great bush recession.
 
The Eurozone isn't pushing Greece out anytime soon. They are seeking more time in the shape of a couple of years to really get down to the repayment schedule, they will be given a year, but not until after 6 months wrangling, and the Germans being seen to be being tough. Any rumoured requests from outside are incidental if they exist.
 
Is it surprising? No. Obama has been pushing everything off until after the election. Hell, he has even decided to hold off on letting the public know what he second term would look ike until after the election.
 
Fletch said:
Is it surprising? No. Obama has been pushing everything off until after the election. Hell, he has even decided to hold off on letting the public know what he second term would look ike until after the election.
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Obama has released more details of his plan than romney. Romney will not even tell us the details of his budget.
 
99percenter said:
Obama has released more details of his plan than romney. Romney will not even tell us the details of his budget.
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He has? The only thing I have heard Obama say specifically is that he plans to raise taxes on the rich. He never mentions the deficit, the debt, the fiscal cliff, entitlement reform, imigration reform, tax reform, or what specific plan he has to reduce unemployment. Can you summarize Obamas position on ANY of these issues?
 
Kandahar said:
I found this article fascinating. Obviously the Obama Administration has a strong political interest in holding off any eurozone collapse until after the election...I don't think anyone would deny that. If anything can doom his chances of reelection, it's another global financial crisis hitting just weeks before Election Day. But I thought this article was surprising for a couple reasons: I was surprised at how brazenly the Obama team is lobbying the EU to hold off until after the election, and I was surprised at how sympathetic and accommodating the EU governments are to his position.

What do you think? Is it appropriate for the Obama Administration to be lobbying foreign governments like this for his own political reasons? And is it appropriate for those foreign governments to listen to him?
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1. It is fully appropriate for our government to try to convince other governments to do what is in our best interest. that is called "foreign policy"

2. It's not astonishing at all that the same guy who thought that the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down should be framed in the context of his historic presidency would also be particularly brazen in pushing eurozone leaders to take action designed to make a crises worse in order to boost his political chances.

3. Greece is gone. The longer it stays in, the worse and more expensive and painful this gets. If the Eurozones' leadership are so ideologically committed to having a left-winger in the Presidency that they are willing to harm their citizens in order to help that president attain reelection.... well, I suppose the fact that the Eurozones' leadership would put their ideological preferences above the good of their citizens is not terribly surprising either. :(
 
99percenter said:
Obama has released more details of his plan than romney. Romney will not even tell us the details of his budget.
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yea your right..Obama really "released the details of his plan"....its called the last 4 years of utter FAILURE...

and im not sure if you Libs get this.. but Obama hasnt passed a budget, so how you BS and fake outrage about not seeing Romney's is BEYOND PRICELESS...
 
Kandahar said:
I found this article fascinating. Obviously the Obama Administration has a strong political interest in holding off any eurozone collapse until after the election...I don't think anyone would deny that. If anything can doom his chances of reelection, it's another global financial crisis hitting just weeks before Election Day. But I thought this article was surprising for a couple reasons: I was surprised at how brazenly the Obama team is lobbying the EU to hold off until after the election, and I was surprised at how sympathetic and accommodating the EU governments are to his position.

What do you think? Is it appropriate for the Obama Administration to be lobbying foreign governments like this for his own political reasons? And is it appropriate for those foreign governments to listen to him?
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Are they "listening" or doing what they intended to do anyway? The EU wants Greece to stay in, majority of Greeks seems to want to stay in as well.
 
nonpareil said:
Are they "listening" or doing what they intended to do anyway? The EU wants Greece to stay in, majority of Greeks seems to want to stay in as well.
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It's hard to tell. The German government does not seem to be willing to take the steps necessary to keep Greece in the euro (at least not yet). But as Manc Skipper pointed out, they may be seeking more time behind closed doors. You may be correct; it's possible that they're willing to be more accommodating to Greece than they let on.
 
cpwill said:
1. It is fully appropriate for our government to try to convince other governments to do what is in our best interest. that is called "foreign policy"

2. It's not astonishing at all that the same guy who thought that the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down should be framed in the context of his historic presidency would also be particularly brazen in pushing eurozone leaders to take action designed to make a crises worse in order to boost his political chances.

3. Greece is gone. The longer it stays in, the worse and more expensive and painful this gets. If the Eurozones' leadership are so ideologically committed to having a left-winger in the Presidency that they are willing to harm their citizens in order to help that president attain reelection.... well, I suppose the fact that the Eurozones' leadership would put their ideological preferences above the good of their citizens is not terribly surprising either. :(
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I agree that Greece can't stay in the euro in the long term. Even under the rosiest assumptions for future economic growth, I don't see any feasible way for Greece to stay. With that said, I'm not sure that it really harms the citizens of other EU countries for Greece to exit later than they otherwise would. In any case, I don't think they're necessarily doing it to "harm their citizens." According to the article, the EU leaders seem to be worried that Mitt Romney would be more isolationist than Barack Obama. I doubt that he would be, but if that's what they're worried about then they may have made a different calculation about what "the good of their citizens" really means.
 
Kandahar said:
I agree that Greece can't stay in the euro in the long term. Even under the rosiest assumptions for future economic growth, I don't see any feasible way for Greece to stay. With that said, I'm not sure that it really harms the citizens of other EU countries for Greece to exit later than they otherwise would.
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No, the longer you keep throwing money down a black hole, the less money you have once you stop.

In any case, I don't think they're necessarily doing it to "harm their citizens."
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I would agree. I would say that there is a range where they currently sit between A) willing to accept that unfortunate side-effect and B) still hoping that the whole thing will put itself out of a magic hat, and no harm to anyone need occur; we will all trip happily through the roses into the End of History.

According to the article, the EU leaders seem to be worried that Mitt Romney would be more isolationist than Barack Obama. I doubt that he would be, but if that's what they're worried about then they may have made a different calculation about what "the good of their citizens" really means.
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It wouldn't terribly surprise me. Just looking at the incentive structure, a Democrat President with a weak economic case needs to be perceived as strong on defense, and so he makes an effort to be active. A Republican attempting entitlement and tax reform needs to avoid the stigma of Republican War-Mongering, and so he avoids international entanglements.

:lol: kind of ironic. Romney might give them what they spent the Bush years yelling for, and they'll hate it.
 
Kandahar said:
I found this article fascinating. Obviously the Obama Administration has a strong political interest in holding off any eurozone collapse until after the election...I don't think anyone would deny that. If anything can doom his chances of reelection, it's another global financial crisis hitting just weeks before Election Day. But I thought this article was surprising for a couple reasons: I was surprised at how brazenly the Obama team is lobbying the EU to hold off until after the election, and I was surprised at how sympathetic and accommodating the EU governments are to his position.

What do you think? Is it appropriate for the Obama Administration to be lobbying foreign governments like this for his own political reasons? And is it appropriate for those foreign governments to listen to him?
Click to expand...
Hey, Obama is pretty damn persuasive. I found myself wanting to believe his hope and change rhetoric back in 2008, and I was (still am) adamantly opposed to him. The man is eerily hypnotizing....
 
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