A Foreign Perspective

Sometimes it's enlightening to look at an editorial from a foreign perspective. Just as we learned about the valuable contributions of Alexis de Toqueville, a Frenchman who arguably gave us the best assessment of the U.S. to date, it can be good to see what they are saying about us "across the pond."

The British paper The Telegraph, no friend to conservatives, has this to say about our current president and foreign policy:

"Regimes in Moscow, Pyongyang and Tehran simply pocket [Obama's] concessions and carry on as before. The picture emerging from the White House is a disturbing one, of timidity, clumsiness and short-term calculation. Some say he is the weakest president since Jimmy Carter."

They continue scathingly on domestic policy:

"The grizzled veterans of the Democratic leadership in Congress have found Mr Obama and his team of bright young advisers a pushover. That has gravely weakened his flagship domestic campaign, for health-care reform, which fails to address the greatest weakness of the American system: its inflated costs."

Finally, the knock-out punch:

"Mr Obama's public image rests increasingly heavily on his extraordinary speechifying abilities... But for what? Mr Obama has tactics a plenty - calm and patient engagement with unpleasant regimes, finding common interests, appealing to shared values - but where is the strategy? What, exactly, did "Change you can believe in" – the hallmark slogan of his campaign – actually mean?"

You can read the full-text of the editorial here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6210152/President-Barack-Obama-is-beginning-to-look-out-of-his-depth.html