President Obama not feeling cooperation from Europe
By Dana Milbank, WashPost, Published: May 21
It is no small irony that President Obama’s reelection bid is being undermined by his friends in Old Europe.
Forty-six months ago, then-candidate Barack Obama flew to Berlin to call for a new era of friendship with Europe after it and the United States had “drifted apart.” With an offer to end the American unilateralism of the Bush years, he urged the adoring crowd: “Now is the time to join together through constant cooperation.”
But in his long weekend of summitry — Group of Eight leaders at Camp David and NATO leaders in Chicago — he found European cooperation coming up short just when his political fortunes depend on it most.
The French are going wobbly on Afghanistan, which, if the sentiment spreads, could threaten his plan for an orderly withdrawal and increase disenchantment with the war at home. And Europeans generally are resisting his urgings that they prop up their ailing economies. Combined with a prospective pullout of Greece from the euro, this could send the U.S. economy back into recession — and evict Obama from the White House.
(More here.)
It is no small irony that President Obama’s reelection bid is being undermined by his friends in Old Europe.
Forty-six months ago, then-candidate Barack Obama flew to Berlin to call for a new era of friendship with Europe after it and the United States had “drifted apart.” With an offer to end the American unilateralism of the Bush years, he urged the adoring crowd: “Now is the time to join together through constant cooperation.”
But in his long weekend of summitry — Group of Eight leaders at Camp David and NATO leaders in Chicago — he found European cooperation coming up short just when his political fortunes depend on it most.
The French are going wobbly on Afghanistan, which, if the sentiment spreads, could threaten his plan for an orderly withdrawal and increase disenchantment with the war at home. And Europeans generally are resisting his urgings that they prop up their ailing economies. Combined with a prospective pullout of Greece from the euro, this could send the U.S. economy back into recession — and evict Obama from the White House.
(More here.)
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