I like the idea that President Obama travels around the world and actually sounds as if he is a normal human being with intellect. A man who is unafraid to acknowledge that America does have short comings. That we screwed up by using torture and failing to incorporate any semblance of cooperation with other nations. The past eight years have shown America as a nation more anxious to do things designed to provoke other countries; which in turn resulted in those nations thinking, "screw you America".
President Obama seems to be a man who looks at other nations as friends rather than enemies and will do so until given reason to show another face. But make no mistake that President Obama will fail to use force if necessary.
After all, what is the harm is shaking the hand of President Chavez? What is to be gained by treating him with animosity? What damage was done by listening respectfully to Ortega. It doesn't mean President Obama agrees with anything the man said.
As for apologizing to the world at the G-20 conference, that apology was due. President Bush made America look like a cold war Russia; now it is up to President Obama to repair the image of America. President Obama should make an apology for the colossal roughshod treatment to the rest of the world by President Bush.
It doesn't mean this president will roll over and play dead if forceful action becomes necessary. And neither does it mean this president has sold out to Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba or any other nation.
Seems to me, many of President Obama critics on the topics cited, have forgotten what it was like to be the victim of the school yard bully (or maybe they were the school yard bully and thought it was cool) and how much respect or cooperation they ever got. That is the role America played for the past eight years and that is the image President Obama must change if we expect to regain cooperation from other nations in the future. Silence and no comment from President Obama and SecState Clinton after the speech by Ortega said far more to the rest of the world than walking out. These acts will produce greater results of a positive nature than will the attitudes of the immediate past administration.
