I was watching the Obama/Merkel press conference yesterday. At the end of her opening remarks Merkel said:
This sounds to me to be an expression of repudiation and frustration with the Bush Administration. It seems to say something about how our allies viewed Bush & Co.
Which leads to the larger question . . . What is the scuttlebutt about how foreign leaders view Obama? (No need to drag Iran’s public comments into the discussion.)
How are other governments viewing and evaluating the Obama Administration?
To me, that sounds more like an acknowledgement of reality than a swipe.
What is Merkel supposed to do, pretend Bush had a sterling record on climate change when he didn’t? That’d be pretty dumb.
Sure, Merkel’s always been pushing for environmental goals. Remember also that Germany heavily subsidizes green energy and is a leading producer of wind turbines, which mean two things: 1) they ideologically favor environmentalism, and 2) they have a strong interest in other countries subsidizing green purchases.
He was looked at as a moron, anti-environment, arrogant, and as someone who treated his allies like garbage as I recall. More to the point, he was very unpopular with the general population around the world, to such an extent that cooperating with him was a political liability. A politician outside of America really can’t go wrong bashing Bush.
Take a ball-peen hammer and bash yourself between the eyes repeatedly for about five minutes. Assuming you’re not concussed, observe the feeling as the pain finally recedes.
That’s how world leaders, generally speaking, feel about dealing with Obama. I think they’re where the country was immediately following the election results–so happy that about no more Bush! that feelings about Obama himself are hard to parse.
From what I saw of the G-20 summit, however, it seems the heads of other nations seem to like him just fine and would be amenable to working with him.
IMO, YMMV, post may not meet local zoning requirements, blah blah blah…
You have no basis for feeling this way except an unsupported assumption that the all the G20 leaders feel the same way towards Bush and Obama as you do.
I doubt that PM George Brown, to take one example, has any kind thoughts or admiration for Obama. Still, Brown’s a dead duck politically, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.
Incidentally, I don’t believe that just because a bunch of murderous tyrants in the Middle East and Latin America appear to have (on the surface and temporarily) fallen in love with Obama this reflects well on him in any way.
Merkel was federal environment minister for four years (in the last Kohl cabinet), also she’s a scientist by training, so of course she’d have been chagrined by the Bush admin’s policy in this regard. But she’s never been one for unprofitable public petulance - she never complained about her intraparty rivals’ unfairness, rather those rivals later found they had walked backwards into a knife.
Nitpick: Gordon Brown. George Brown was the heavy-drinking Labour politician who held offices including foreign secretary and inspired Private Eye to give the world the phrase “tired and emotional.”
As to not having a basis for my opinions… sure I do. I followed the various newsclips, interweb postings, scuttlebutt from the many sources. Granted I was not a fly on the wall but it seems that being a fly around the President is a dangerous proposition anyway so that’s all to the good.
I think that being a conciliator between two heads of state having a row might be one reason why I think there’s at least some respect for the man there.
Also… a bunch of murderous tyrants in love with Obama… that’s rich… according to everyone’s favorite Venezualan narcissist, Mr. Chavez, the President “smells of sulfur” and the Iranian dictator seems to think Obama is interfering with his [del]selection[/del] election. That don’t seem like a real cheeryup moment either.
Merkel and Obama have been at odds on several issues, including the financial crisis, troop levels in Afghanistan, and Gitmo detainees. This announcement is probably motivated in part by the need to find an issue where they can announce common ground.
“Announce” being the operative word here, however. Germany hasn’t actualy moved on Kyoto or any other such accord either, and is if anything far behind the US in reducing pollution.
