Because of their frequency, Obama’s suggestions are gradually becoming insulting. Besides, current conditions in the United States hardly make it a role model worth following.
The number of provocations is on the rise. Doesn’t the U.S. president realize that, or is it that he just doesn’t care? Or perhaps he has other priorities? Europe and Barack Obama is a subject that could well present difficulties. I say “could,” because there’s no assurance that Barack Obama will even be re-elected next year. Plus, it’s also possible that Europeans — who after two George W. Bush terms welcomed Obama as a messiah — may not even care if he fails to get a second term. There’s nothing worse than disappointment in love, so they say.
Obama adopts a tone vis-à-vis the Old World, an undertone that comes through to his supporters, that getting old or being old-fashioned is no longer desirable and has to be abandoned. In Darwin, Australia, he expressed his clear inclination toward the Pacific region; that served to exacerbate the existing suspicion that he — being partly raised in Indonesia — is really a “Pacific president” and the first occupant of the Oval Office who will actually make this policy shift a reality.
The United States has been issuing various warnings to the Europeans for months and no governmental agency would do that without White House approval. Case in point is Obama’s months-old insistence that Europe needs to get on the stick and decide more quickly to sink more money into solving the euro crisis. Meanwhile, Europeans are thinking of how easy it is for him, from his perspective, to say that. They wonder at just how little understanding he has of European-style democratic processes. This is basically scary considering the many years of trans-Atlantic relations. Plus, it’s superficial. Europeans feel that such words would never have been spoken by a Bill Clinton, who studied in Europe and studied Europe itself.
Because of their frequency, Obama’s suggestions are gradually becoming insulting. What he suggests is a power play, and what right has he to do that? If Europe needs to adopt specific financial or economic policies, who better to make those decisions than the Europeans themselves? And who in this critical situation wants to have to listen to an American president who can’t even achieve unity between the two political parties in his own country as his nation stands at the brink of a financial and economic abyss?
What’s true (and what cannot be said by any European head of state because it’s politically incorrect) is that the United States is making no progress whatsoever in reducing its enormous mountain of debt and that the political gridlock will have disastrous consequences. The unemployment rate is horrendous. Not a great justification for anyone to give advice to others — especially not from the perspective of those who don’t feel they’re receiving a good education in the first place.
Some utterances in particular have a special effect on the Europeans: “The United States stands ready to do our part to help them resolve this issue.” He says this in such a way that sounds to European ears as if he’s a know-it-all, telling us, “If you can’t do it yourselves…” But his help doesn’t include providing money, nor does he give any details as to what that help does provide. Obama went on to say, “This is of huge importance to our own economy.” And that’s what it’s all about: America. The intent carries through, and it doesn’t sound especially nice.
Nonetheless, the fact is that the United States and Europe are united as are no two other nations. America and the European Union account for fully half of global GDP. With a turnover of some €667 billion (about $886 billion) in 2010, the EU is America’s biggest trading partner worldwide. 15 million jobs depend on this relationship globally.
We think that’s why the relationship needs some TLC. Provocations are an expense, and not only to the nerves.
As an American, I suspect that the reasons that Obama continues to push Europe so hard are that the US is in much, much worse shape than anyone lets on (as this article hints), and that Obama is quite simply desperate. US banks have a large exposure to EU debt, and he knows it. And it serves as a political distraction from the utter and total failure of his administration to address the US’s economic problems in any way. And, finally, the US is desperate to make sure that the Euro fails, since having the world’s primary reserve currency is one of the few things holding up the American house of cards. Also, the gangsters who have taken over the US could care less about the US-EU relationship. or about global jobs. They care only about stealing money for themselves. Everybody else, including Europe, can rot in hell for all they care.