If he can successfully negotiate a US-EU trade deal, or a US-Japan trade deal, that’s awesome. He’s not there yet, but he has time if he makes it a priority.
Has US prestige improved in the world? Pew says not a whole lot, and it’s been slipping the longer the reality of Barack Obama’s foreign policy conflicts with the idea of Barack Obama:
**In the fifth year of the Obama presidency, the United States’ image remains strong around the world compared with the last years of the administration of President George W. Bush. Still, pro-America sentiment is slipping.
The decline is in no way comparable to the collapse of U.S. standing in the first decade of this century. But the “Obama bounce” in the global stature of the United States experienced in 2009 is clearly a thing of the past. And this gradual erosion of support is, in part, due to the diminishing popularity of U.S. President Barack Obama himself in some nations.
In 28 of 38 nations, half or more of those surveyed express a favorable opinion of the U.S., according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. This includes more than half those surveyed in seven of eight European countries, including three quarters in Italy, two thirds in Poland and 64 percent in France.**
This is evidence of what, exactly? It seems like evidence that Obama has greatly increased the opinion of the world community for America, even if that great increase is not as big as it was at the beginning of his first term.
The bounce has mostly disappeared and things are still getting worse.
Now if it’s because he’s doing things in our interest and doing them well, like the drone war, then all well and good. I never cared much about the world’s opinion, but liberals really do seem to care a lot about this, so I’m kinda surprised they regard Obama as successful in foreign policy when people aren’t liking us any better. Back when Bush was in office, our unpopularity was all liberals needed to cite to convince themselves that he was terrible at foreign policy.
So lemme get this straight: US support/favorability in Europe and the world was at around 45% in 2008. After Obama took office that shot up to about 72%. Right now, that stands at 63%. You, somehow, think that losing 9-10% of a 30% gain justifies the statement that “the bounce has mostly disappeared”. :dubious:
I can only surmise that, to you, the word “mostly” means something quite different than what it means to the rest of us.
It always seems that regardless of other axes of ideology, partisans will support congressional supremacy in policymaking when the other party holds the WH and presidential supremacy when their own does.
What was your view at the time of W’s lavish use of “signing statements” and John Yoo’s strong version of the “unitary executive” theory? I know a whole lot of Pubs/RWs were strongly supportive. And it all went way beyond anything Obama has done with executive orders.
Given that it’s adaher, it might well be “bounce” or “disappeared” that have different meanings for him. And I wouldn’t rule out “has” and “the,” while we’re at it.