The Real G-2: Obama’s Historic Opportunity
On Saturday, Manmohan Singh left for Washington. The Indian prime minister’s four-day visit gives the struggling Obama administration an historic opportunity to further ties with New Delhi — and to erase the failures of the president’s recently completed trip to Asia.
And there is much to erase. Let’s start with all the bowing. Obama’s bow to Japan’s Emperor Akihito received so much attention, but the president performed the same act in China, stooping low to Premier Wen Jiabao, the Communist Party’s No. 3-ranked leader. Wen, not even a head of state, received the bend-at-the-waist treatment from the president during their meeting in Beijing, as did some low-level functionary in Shanghai at the now-infamous town hall meeting. Shall we call him “Barack Bowbama”?
So was the bowing significant? The obsequious acts during both stopovers in China were, unfortunately, indications of Obama’s submissive attitude toward the Chinese communist state. Before getting on the plane for Asia, the American leader performed two figurative bows to Beijing. First, he refused to meet with the Dalai Lama on His Holiness’s trip to Washington early last month, breaking a practice of the previous three administrations. Then, in a Reuters interview on the eve of the trip, Obama said the United States and China were bound together in a “strategic partnership,” something Beijing has been waiting a decade to hear.
Despite his pre-emptive concessions, the president received little in return. The Chinese, pocketing these gains, seemed to have stiffed Obama on every issue under discussion in Beijing. The White House afterwards issued a “U.S.-China joint statement” listing areas where the two nations agreed to cooperate, but the document seems as if it was patched together to paper over differences evident during the meetings in the Chinese capital.
Not even Obama’s soaring words about cooperation and shared interests could hide the fact that Hu Jintao, his counterpart, and Premier Wen did not budge on anything of significance, especially their pegging of the renminbi to the dollar, which is the main obstacle to sustained global recovery. Pundits say that the next few months could reveal a more cooperative China when, for instance, the question of Iran lands back in the Security Council, but there was no indication during the terse post-summit appearance in Beijing on Tuesday that the two countries had made progress in coming to terms.
for president obama-kennedy (httd – heir to the dynasty) this was a meeting of the 2 leading communist nations. the next nobel winner for economics also had a chance for a communist chinese cook the books course. look for fixed 8 percent gdp ala maddoff in your future.
“That’s why Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington offers a crucial second chance for Mr. Obama.”
Barack Obama will most assuredly further harm his relationship with Manmohan Singh. In his heart of hearts, our leftist president perceives all of America’s friends as disgusting. Our country is supposedly guilty of crapping on the poor and disenfranchised of the world. Thus, any friend of ours must also be despicable if not even outright evil. Only explicit enemies of the United States might be morally virtuous.
The present occupant of the White House is a self-hating American. He no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt. The evidence is overwhelming that this is indeed the harsh reality of the matter. Always expect the worse.
Mr. Chang what in the world possessed you into thinking that you; or anyone else could penetrate Barrack Hussein Obama’s skull?
Obama will make some kind of a mess, maybe even a huge, grand royal new Guinness World Record of a really sloppy mess when the Indian PM visits.
Maybe he will give him a special gift, like a magic flying carpet with a squeeze rubber bubble horn or a very pissed off snake stuffed inside a beer can.
Not to worry though, the mainstream media will suck up to and cover for Obama by concentrating on the magnificent job Congress is doing when it comes to wiping out the health care system of world’s most powerful democracy; soon to be used to be or has been.
The Obama administration is actually in fact and truly, a university student government: it looks like one, it thinks like one and it acts like one. It’s all amateur theatrics, pretend Broadway, with bowing and scraping to exotic visitors, like they do in the old photos in the documentaries shown at the Ivied halls of learnin’
Obama said he’s all down with the Pacific… and the poor clueless jughead completely forgot about India, sitting there, dominating everything south of the Hindu Kush. But then, as all current Western Civ courses note, India is a product of the British Empire which was Eeeevvvvillll. Plus, of course, India is not quite as INTERESTING and EXOTIC as China, what with Mao and food you just never experience in the USofA.
Lucky world.
Let’s see. . . . is India a communist nation or a friend of islam? Don’t think so. . . thus, the “o” could care less about relations with her.
where are the pictures???
juxtapose all the bowing/scraping against 0bama’s turned-up-nose while others are saluting the USA Flag………
sour grapes
The more I read Mr. Chang, the more I think he is secretly working for Beijing. He keeps fooling Americans to ignore global reality.
Barry Obama is a schoolboy and he thinks he likes communism. What do we expect him to do?
cleesburg, could you explain your theory? I am intrigued.
heathermc, you write: “The Obama administration is actually in fact and truly, a university student government.”
Yes, I agree.
India is a great potential ally. It’s a democracy, a trade partner, a strategic competitor to China, and on the right side on the war on terror (and in the same neighborhood). There are labor issues, but I’d rather have my computer made in India than China. Bush developed excellent relations with India and I hope Obama doesn’t screw that up.