Analysis: Europe is next test for weakened Obama

[thundley4]

If President Barack Obama is not yet convinced that his international star power has faded, his next round of transatlantic summitry should clear up any lingering doubts.

Coming off a marathon Asia trip where Obama often found himself rebuffed by fellow world leaders, he will head to Europe this week where the agenda will be clouded by a growing divide over economic strategy and a sense of neglect among traditional U.S. allies.

His challenge is to reassure European partners that, despite political weakness at home and embarrassing setbacks abroad, he remains committed to better cooperation on issues ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the fight against trade protectionism.

But it will not be easy for Obama, whose Democratic Party suffered heavy losses in this month's congressional elections, to dispel the impression that his stature has been diminished on the world stage. He will attend back-to-back NATO and European Union summits in Lisbon on Friday and Saturday.

"The tricky thing for Obama is to show the Europeans not only that he's still important to them but that they're still important to the U.S.," said Sally McNamara, a European affairs expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Reuters
 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Well, Merkel certainly indicated how that's gonna go last week.  Really, he needs stuff from them a whole Hell of a lot more than they need anything at all from him...and the sane ones over there, mainly the Brits, Irish, and Germans, aren't working from the same nutty Keynesian economic assumptions that he is (The French won't cooperate with him either, but that's because they're French and he's more-or-less American, not because they're sane).  As far as SW Asia goes, if our political leadership is transparently baling on Afghanistan now, what the Hell is in it for them to commit one more soldier's life to it?

[true_blood]

Off again huh, lord zero. Tell you what, why don't you just stay in Europe since you love socialism so much. You'll have all the "hope" and "change".

[JohnnyReb]

So, now he's campaigning for president of France, huh.