As the dust settles from Obama’s speech in Cairo and quick trip through Europe, I’m left with the distinct sense that overall, Obama is on a major upswing.
The lead story in my hometown Akron Beacon Journal today was, “Serious times call for serious president overseas,” with the comparison to Bush explicit.
It’s a McClatchy wire report, written by Margaret Talev, which generally makes the case that while Obama’s visits with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were brief, they were substantive and business-like, hitting exactly the right tone. (Bush, it notes, had quite literally “fawned over” Merkel.)
Regarding Obama’s approach, the article states:
It’s winning plaudits, not only with foreign audiences and world leaders, but also at home, where his presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and fellow Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., both have praised his style as right for the times.
His speech in Cairo to the Muslim world, some 1.5 billion people, not only reached one of the biggest audiences ever sought but also may open doors after decades of misunderstanding, to judge from the first opinion polls cited by the White House. But in meetings with four heads of government or state, Obama went out of his way to avoid effusiveness.
Style for the times. That’s the kind of impression that can start to stick.
The Beacon Journal twinned this with an AP article by Karin Laub, “Islamic militants wary of Obama; President’s remakrs appear to undercut stance of extremists. Some groups respons positively.”
Here’s the nut:
From Lebanese guerrillas to Saudi preachers, Islamic extremists have warned followers not to be taken in by President Barack Obama’s conciliatory words — a sign that some may be nervous about losing support if animosity toward the United States fades. …
There are already some indications his words are having the desired effect of undercutting extremists. A militant leader in Egypt called on the Taliban to respond positively to Obama’s gestures, and Hamas militants in Gaza say they are ready ”to build on this speech.”
Already — in important, tangible ways — Obama is beginning to undo the damage done to the U.S. image in the Muslim world, deterring would-be extremists, beginning what will surely be a long process of making us safer. And all without a single bullet fired.
Lest we think this is limited to one speech in the foreign policy arena, the New York Times had a must-read article this morning, about Obama’s economic team.
Remember all the fulminating when Obama named Lawrence H. Summers his chief economic advisor? People said he was sexist, impossibly antagonistic, and would never get along with anyone in the cabinet. They predicted stalemate at best, dire division at worst.
Here’s the nut:
When Mr. Obama named his economic team last November, even some within his circle questioned whether Mr. Summers, given his prickly personality, could be an honest broker of other advisers’ ideas, as National Economic Council directors are supposed to be. Mr. Summers also had made it clear that he wanted to be Treasury secretary again, as he was in the Clinton administration.
As messy as the process has sometimes been, officials say Mr. Summers and his colleagues have worked through their differences. Often arriving and leaving in the dark, sustained by coffee and the Diet Cokes that fill Mr. Summers’s office refrigerator, they have produced in six months an array of economic rescue plans that would be daunting if spread over six years. With those, and the Fed’s efforts, the economy shows signs of new life.
New signs of life. On the front page of the Times, that line in and of itself could go a long way toward further restoring consumer confidence.
For all the criticism he took in the wake of his Cairo speech — that his speech was “un-American”; or, particularly from the Jewish community, that he is somehow forsaking the U.S.-Israel relationship (he’s not; see my posts below) – I’d say it’s a pretty good Monday to be the American president.