Repeating Crises for Barack Obama

The Euro’s recent decline is no longer missing from Barack Obama’s already long list of worries. In just two weeks, the American president has had to face a long spate of international and domestic crises.

His inability to resolve them is weighing down on his image as a decision-maker. Maureen Dowd, a very progressive columnist with the New York Times, has made a curt judgment. “The man who walked on water is now ensnared by a crisis under water.” If he doesn’t mend the situation quickly, he himself will become a serious handicap for the Democratic Party at the congressional elections in November.

Internationally speaking, the events in Gaza have been disastrous for Washington’s foreign policy. America has a lot to lose in the divorce between its two most loyal friends in the Middle East, its longtime ally in the region and a member of NATO like Turkey. Concerned with not appearing to be too “soft” toward the Muslim world (a criticism often addressed by conservatives), the American president obtained the opposite result: By failing to condemn the Israeli aggression against the (so-called) humanitarian ship, he exasperated Ankara, which is now feeling abandoned by the United States.

Turkey may resort to retaliations with serious consequences: Currently a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, the Turkish government has the opportunity to hamper the sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. This is another important piece of American foreign policy that may fall victim to Barack Obama’s contradictions.

As for the Far East, the belligerent regime of Kim Jung Il is mocking at Washington’s attempts to launch a dialogue to dissuade them from pursuing their nuclear armament projects. The North Korean attack against a South Korean army ship has made tensions mount again in the peninsula where 28,000 American soldiers are still stationed. Barack Obama has not yet found the best foolproof method, if he is not to hope for assistance from China. In Japan, the overthrow of the Prime Minister Hatoyama is the immediate consequence of concessions he made to the United States about the army base in Okinawa.

The strength of the euro zone is another major problem. Barack Obama is concerned about the rapid recovery of the dollar that hurts the American industry in two ways: The “made in USA” goods are rising in price, while the profits made in Europe by American multinational companies are tumbling when they are brought home. Worse enough, fiscal stabilization policies raised fears of Europe relapsing into a recession, with far-reaching consequences on American growth. From Washington’s point of view, it’s dangerous that Germany adopts drastic cuts in its budget even though it has margins to boost its internal demands.

Finally, the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico — the worst ecological disaster America has ever experienced — continues to catch the attention of American public opinion. At the start, the government seemed to be inactive, even if the law requires the oil company to mobilize every means capable of solving the disaster. But the “Yes we can” president was humiliated in his role of powerless spectator. When elected, he was the embodiment of the restoration of administration and trade policy. But the Obama administration has proved to be weak, even complicit, in the face of BP’s serious and repeated violations of security.