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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
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?