The President Muffed a Chance to Act Like a Leader — rather than as a Political Hack — when He Declined to Meet with Russia’s President Putin — As Is Usual with Him, Other People Will Be Paying the Price

09 August 2013

Showboating leaders showboat — and not much else

My biggest disappointment with President Obama is that his elevated rhetoric intentionally masks the fact that he is (more often than not) a purely self-interested, run of the mill political hack.

The President goes wherever the political winds are blowing — even when that means that he is unnecessarily damaging the United States (or some other nation) in the long run.

His decision not to meet with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin — over the latter’s asylum grant to NSA leaker, Edward Snowden — is a good example of how small-mindedly the American President operates.

Obama chickens out of Putin meeting

From Dan Roberts:

Relations between the United States and Russia deteriorated further on Wednesday when Barack Obama abandoned a presidential summit with Vladimir Putin that was due to be held next month, amid fury in Washington over Moscow's decision to grant asylum to the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The White House confirmed that it had decided to snub the Russian leader by pulling out of the planned bilateral meeting in Moscow, but is expected to take part in the broader G20 meeting of international leaders in St Petersburg.

A politically profitable, but shortsighted ploy

The American public probably supports the President’s childish payback. Especially after he unwisely took Putin’s bait and upped him one:

As for the tense relations with the Russian government, which granted Snowden a year of asylum, Obama said, “There are times when they slip back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality.”

That’s the way a whiny four-year old would see it.

A genuine leader would recognize that President Putin is merely acting the way any former geopolitical hegemon would act in the face of America’s heavy-handed traipsing around the planet. And he or she would analyze the situation for opportunities to forward sensible geopolitical goals, in spite of it.

Other people pay the price

From John Hudson:

On the eve of a cabinet-level meeting between Russia and the United States, the White House is taking heat from all sorts of Syria-minded activists for refusing to engage with the Kremlin at the highest levels.

"Lack of communication will make the situation on the ground worse, not better," Dan Layman, director of media relations at the Syrian Support Group . . . .

"President Obama's failure to prioritize a meeting with President Putin to discuss peace in Syria was a reckless move," said Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America's humanitarian policy manager.

"We encourage presidents Obama and Putin to drop the political theater and, instead, demonstrate leadership in search of ending the bloodshed in Syria."

[Oxfam’s Noah Gottschalk said,] "Putin and Obama meeting wouldn't have solved everything, but it could've gotten the ball rolling towards meaningful talks.

"People in the region . . . saw it as important opportunity for high-level discussions. But what they got is a decision to put petty politics over the lives of Syrians."

Politically speaking, being shortsighted is rewarded

Obama’s style in the conflict with President Putin mirrors that in his lethargic Afghanistan withdrawal. It is apparently okay, in Barack Obama’s mind, when other people are dying due to his politically self-interested lethargy.

In regard to Russia, it is easier for the President to drum up anti-Russian sentiment in the United States, than it is to educate the public about the inevitable conflicts that powerful nations pose each other.

Instead of admitting that Russia has far more to lose in Syria than the United States does, the President prefers to pretend that Russia is simply being an “ass” for no better reason than Putin’s past KGB credentials and his allegedly warped character.

Note

Walter Hickey wrote a good explanation for Russian behavior in Syria. Russian interests there are equivalent to ours in Israel. See, here.

By playing on a combination of (i) our characteristically abysmal American historical and geopolitical ignorance and (ii) our equally unalloyed hubris, the President makes himself both reasonably popular and political unassailable.

What is lost in President Obama’s self-advancement is leadership’s opportunity to educate the public as to what is really going on the world — and how Americans can most effectively get what we want out of it.

In short, the President’s self-interested tit for tat shortsightedness simply makes the world situation worse. And I doubt that “Wanna Be Manly Man” Putin is much impressed with Obama’s playground demeanor.

Note

You can imagine how ineffective a cop I would have been, had I refused to talk to irritatingly abrasive people on the street — even under circumstances in which I lacked probable cause to arrest them.

Sometimes talking is all you have. The process, though frequently apparently futile, works more often over the long run than one might expect.

The moral? — No Lincoln (or even Bush I) in our midst

For a man who allegedly wanted to be like Abraham Lincoln, President Obama has put on a miserable performance — even though History granted him voluminous opportunities to achieve greatness of effort.

I suppose the Obama years demonstrate how difficult it is to rise to situations that challenge our capacities of character. Knowing this on a personal level always gives me pause in advancing my criticisms of the President.

On the other hand, his failures of courage and political self-sacrifice are paid for in other people’s blood. I have trouble quietly accepting that.

PeteFree.com

The President Muffed a Chance to Act Like a Leader — rather than as a Political Hack — when He Declined to Meet with Russia’s President Putin — As Is Usual with Him, Other People Will Be Paying the Price