These people might not necessarily be old in age but they appear ancient in their thinking. When these people speak, it comes out as blah, blah, blah.
The global mindset is shifting and some people are having troubles coming to grips with that or even recognizing it, let alone tap into it, but Obama has tuned in, which is why he's popular around the world. The world is changing and he knows it.
We don't want to be the arrogant nation anymore and the world wants better of the U.S. too. With our failed financial system that sparked a global recession, it's difficult to fathom how we could not be anything but humble.
Many people, like Michael Gerson on Meet the Press, downplayed Obama's success in Europe, saying that he didn't achieve anything of substance. Gerson's dead wrong.
Obama made giant strides, coming off of the Bush administration. He projected a humble America, one that's ready to mix and play well and not just dictate because that's what's needed to get through some serious problems. The world has gotten smaller--one nation's actions affects the others. Obama laid the groundwork for the future and he's still got a speech in Turkey tomorrow. He accomplished a lot in a week. That's pretty successful if you ask me.
Here's a few other tangible accomplishments:
France agreed to take a Guantanamo detainee, the G20 leaders agreed on financial reforms, Obama and Medvedev agreed to reduce nuclear stockpiles, NATO leaders agreed to police Afghanistan's elections in August.
There's so much more that happened behind the scenes and Hillary Clinton also traveled to Europe. Who knows what doors she opened.
But after Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration embarked on a foreign policy that often alienated allies.
Obama pledged during his campaign to turn the page. Since taking office, he has ordered the closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; reached out to Iran, isolated for years by the Bush administration; and, on this trip, turned to international organizations such as the G-20 and NATO for help on economic and national security issues.
He intends to make it easier for Cuban exiles to visit and send money to their families on the island, rolling back Bush-era restrictions in doing so. And he has embraced the European Union in a way his predecessor never did, effectively placing the continent on equal footing with the "special relationship" shared by the United States and the United Kingdom.
On Monday, he will begin a two-day swing through Turkey, taking his message to a predominantly Muslim nation and a critical bridge between Europe and the Middle East.
But beyond his actions, it is the sharp change in tone and the willingness to cast the United States as a nation that bears much of the responsibility for a raft of global woes that have been most striking in Obama's excursion.
"I'm enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world," Obama said here Saturday when asked whether he believed in the concept of "American exceptionalism." ". . . So I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we can't solve these problems alone."
Jeremy Shapiro, director of research for the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, said that "the tone of the messages he is giving is a specific and intended sharp break with the past."
At the same time, Shapiro noted that on the "hard edge of policy" in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where unlike some European allies Obama has not signaled a willingness to talk to the armed Islamist group Hamas, the president's policy and goals have not changed much from those of his predecessor.
"Europeans are hungry for American leadership but tired of American arrogance," Shapiro said. "And he's managing to display both." Read more at WaPo
