Are we reading the president right? In other words, is the administration one hell of smart political machine we hoped for or the complete opposite? I am pissed and yeah the Olympic public humiliation has something to do with it, and yes the pugs cheering our loss but more importantly I hate capitulating ineffective toothless lion (hello health care bipartisanship, where are you?). I tried to come up with so many excuses for all the fuck-ups so far, we all do from time to time -of course. But this is making me question what the heck is happening in their style of governing.
How come Rham let him fly over there knowing this shit isn't in the bag. It is just mind bogglingly stupid. Yes other world leaders are there and all but this is POTUS.
America wants a leader who is inspiring, charismtic, smart etc... but admit it folks we love the leader of the free world to be "feared" and respected and more importantly a WINNER, fair unfair is not an issue.
They love him everywhere out there but show me anyone who fear him, enemy or foe.
I'm not going to dismiss this just as a republican spin.
There has been a growing narrative taking hold about Barack Obama’s presidency in recent weeks: that he is loved by many, but feared by none; that he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence.
Chicago’s dismal showing today, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.
It was only the Olympic Games, the White House will argue — not a high-stakes diplomatic gamble with North Korea. It is always worthwhile when Mr Obama sells America to the rest of the world, David Axelrod, his chief political adviser, said today. But that argument will fall on deaf ears in the US. Americans want their presidents to be winners
Losing the damn Olympics after his and his wife personal pitch was bad and worse when you come LAST. Yeah its just Olympics and fine, I'm not going to whine about it more than the rethugs who argued he shouldn't go and cheer when America loses.
But
At home, it is difficult to turn on a television and not see Mr Obama giving a press conference, or an interview, or at a town hall rally, in his all-out effort to sell his troubled reform the US health insurance system. After three months of enormous exposure, Mr Obama has achieved this: the growing likelihood of ramming a Bill through Congress with — at most — just one Republican vote.
Good job Mr president. Would you have gotten any worse support and poll numbers if you just didn't spend the entire time preaching bipartisanship crap and go with what you have, pull all the power and govern tough. Forget republicans, even wishy washy Dims got the gut now to say no to the president because they don't see a though guy.He blink alot!
The admin started healthcare from such a compromised and pathetically weak position that by the end of it all, the republicans will get everything they wanted and without being blamed for a damn deficit, without voting for it and completely shielded from politcal attacks while still crying about it 24/7. I guess my question is why is the admin being so weak? and so rookie? I say that because this Olympic thing got me. I thought he is being fooled or may be he is ...naive?
Mr Obama also scrapped a plan for a missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, hoping to get in return Russian co-operation behind new sanctions against Tehran. There was optimism when President Medvedev said "sanctions are seldom productive, but they are sometimes inevitable". Yet Vladimir Putin, and the Chinese, remain fiercely opposed to sanctions.
Meanwhile, America and its allies are being forced to witness a very public agonising by Mr Obama and his advisers over his Afghan strategy — six months after he announced that strategy.
This has all added to the perception that Mr Obama’s soaring rhetoric — which captured the imagination during last year’s election — is simply not enough when it comes to confronting the myriad challenges of the presidency. His spectacular Olympic failure will only add to that.
Newsweek thinks it is Goof for Obama...I agree
In terms of how costly it is including the nightmare preparation for 8 years doing the constructiona and all but again regarding this admin's handling of matters
There’s actually something worrisome about this whole Chicago fiasco, and it goes back to President Obama’s inexperience. Diplomacy 101 tells us that your head of state only shows up on the high-profile stage when a deal is complete. The lesson that most politicians learn well before they gain positions of power is that diplomacy is done by diplomats, professionals who work through all the negotiations and the hardball tactics and the carrot/stick combinations. The principals in the matter gather to discuss high-level topics and to smile for the cameras as the agreement is being signed. Heads of state do not conduct diplomacy, they ratify it, and surprises are entirely unwelcome at those summits and signing events (hence Reagan’s anger in Iceland.)
Why were you and Ramesh surprised? Because you thought that President Obama at least knew this very basic lesson. Today’s announcement suggests that he does not, and it just got advertised big-time to countries who already were pretty sure we had a rookie at the helm who didn’t know how to use international power. President Obama just got upstaged by an organization against whom no retaliation is acceptable, and he wants to meet with the Iranians next month? We are in deep, deep trouble.
You say?