Zakaria: President Obama is failing in his role as leader of the free world

[ericgtr]

Guess book sales must be slipping, I used to respect this asshole.


-snip-
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/03/zakaria.g20/index.html

Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts "Fareed Zakaria: GPS" on CNN at 1 and 5 p.m. ET Sundays.

(CNN) -- President Obama on Friday called on Europe and the United States to drop negative attitudes toward each other and said "unprecedented coordination" is needed to confront the global economic crisis.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France, on his first overseas trip as president, Obama said, "I'm confident that we can meet any challenge as long as we are together."

Obama's comments came after the Group of 20 meeting in London, England -- which the president called "a success" of "nations coming together, working out their differences and moving boldly forward" -- and on the eve of a NATO summit in Strasbourg marking that organization's 60th anniversary.

Author and world affairs expert Fareed Zakaria spoke to CNN about the G-20:

CNN: What do you think of President Obama's trip to the G-20?

Fareed Zakaria: Although he brought a lot of starpower -- the talk of the week -- at least in certain circles in Washington, New York and London -- has been that President Obama is failing in his role as leader of the free world. British columnist Jonathan Freedland wrote in The Guardian newspaper that President Obama looks neither like JFK nor FDR but rather JEC -- that's James Earl Carter -- better known here as Jimmy Carter.

CNN: But it appears everyone is fawning over him.

Zakaria: President Obama has encountered a Europe that is more resistant to his policy proposals. The French and Germans have their own proposals. The Chinese and Russians have come with their own demands. And everyone expects him to apologize for having caused this mess in the first place.

CNN: But can they blame him for the mess?

Zakaria: Of course not. He didn't cause this mess, and no one really blames him personally. The problems President Obama is facing on the world stage have nothing to do with him. They are really a sign that personality cannot trump power in the world of realpolitik. The real story here is that power is shifting away from American dominance to a post-American world. VideoWatch: James Baker on Obama's performance as president »

CNN: Are you just plugging your book?

Zakaria: Well, that was the argument of the book I wrote last year -- "The Post-American World" -- but what I had outlined is coming true. The evidence for this just keeps piling up.

CNN: Before you outline the evidence, remind me of the basic premise of your book.

Zakaria: It's that the rest of the world is rising to meet the United States' position -- economically, politically and culturally. I want to be clear that I am not talking about America's decline as much as the rise of the rest. While we stayed comfortable in our status quo position, the rest of the world was learning from us and are playing our game and succeeding in it.

CNN: OK. Now give me the examples from the G-20 meeting.

Zakaria: Let me name two things that struck me.

First, the Chinese have called for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar. This would never have happened 10 years ago -- back then, they needed America too much.

Then the French and Germans have said they want a new system of financial regulation that will replace the American-style one that has reigned for the last 20 years.

Why are the flexing their muscles? Because they can.

CNN: Is this happening because of the financial crisis?

Zakaria: The trends were there before, but it appears the financial crisis has accelerated the process. So we are entering the post-American world much faster than even I had anticipated.

CNN: Should we be scared?

Zakaria: Fear should not be our response. We need to recommit to our strengths. America's great -- and potentially insurmountable -- strength is it remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods and services.

The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants. Faced with the new technologies of foreign companies or growing markets overseas, it adapts and adjusts. When you compare this dynamism with the closed and hierarchical nations that were once superpowers, you sense that the United States is different and may not fall into the trap of becoming rich and fat and lazy.

CNN: What should the U.S. do?

Zakaria: The United States needs to make its own commitment to the system clear. For America to continue to lead the world, we will have to first join it. President Obama seems to understand this and is doing his best at meetings like the G-20 and the NATO summit.

It is also imperative that more Americans become aware of what is going on in other places -- the other 90 percent of the world.

[geek tragedy]

1. He's not criticizing Obama.

Just pointing out that the rest of the world caught up to us (on Bush's watch).

[pot luck]

2. The title of the article is "Zakaria: Obama critics have it wrong"

He's not saying Obama is failing as a world leader, but that Obama's critics are wrong in not realizing that increasingly the rest of the world doesn't need America (and Obama) to be their leader because they are catching up with us.

[Lyric]

3. They changed the title. I saw it earlier. It was originally as the OP stated.

[ericgtr]

5. Thank you, yes that was the original title

And he is indeed criticizing Obama pretty harshly in there.

[Thrill]

11. Sounds like a typical CNN trick

[asphalt.jungle]

4. The Guardian columnist that Fareed quoted wrote that BEFORE the summit even began

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/01/barack-obama-g20

Someone tore up the script. Here's how it was meant to go. Barack Obama was supposed to sweep into Europe on his first major trip abroad as the new JFK, greeted by adoring fans moistly waving little American flags. His progress would be part celebrity world tour, part celebration of the end of the Bush era. A needy Gordon Brown would bask in the Obama glow, hoping its rays would improve his own deathly pallor. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe's leaders would fall to their knees, humbly agreeing to any request made by the visiting emperor, mindful that in a choice between them and Obama, their own electorates would choose Obama every time.

That was the way it was supposed to be. Instead, Obama arrived last night on the eve of what organisers promise will be a raucous day of anti-globalisation protest on London's streets, the demonstrators' previous loathing of George Bush rapidly transferred to the commanders of the ailing world economy. Brown will still crave the Obama magic dust, but he may find his American visitor has less of it to sprinkle around, beleaguered as he is by rising opposition from both left and right at home, even the first muttered grumbles that the 44th president might turn out to be neither a new FDR nor a JFK, but a JEC - Jimmy Carter. To cap it all, the Europeans are refusing to bow down before him.

hmmmm seems like it went more like the first paragraph than anything in the second. stop trying to predict the future there jonathan.

i wonder what he would say now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/04/obama-strasbourg-nato-nuclear

[Thrill]

7. LOL! Surprised he hasn't had them remove the first article

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. Well done!

[ericgtr]

12. Thank you n/t

[Dollface]

6. Zakaria is an Obama fan but he is not a toady.

[ericgtr]

8. He's also wrong in this article

He is cherry picking what a couple of people said in order to make a headline. Obama is clearly having a positive impact across the world and saying something like this after only 3 months in office is below even Zakaria.

[asphalt.jungle]

10. it's not about being a toady, he was wrong to quote a guy who wrote an analysis before the summit

and make it seem like the columnist said those things after the summit when people had time to size him up. see this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8319075&mesg_id=8319126

[Barack_America]

13. And yet the Chinese call for a new currency was not discussed at the G-20...

...and the final document was adopted only after Obama brokered a deal between the Chinese and French.

There was a lot of chest-puffing heading into the G-20, but in the end, Obama walked out with what he wanted.

I'm not saying whether this is good or not, globally speaking, but I certainly don't see the G-20 as the fruition of Zakaria's prophecy. Rather the opposite, in fact.