EXCEPT THAT THE UR KILLING COPENHAGEN...:

How Copenhagen died during Barack Obama's Asia trip (STEVE CLEMONS, 11/18/09, Politico)

Given expectations and Obama’s own early declarations of its importance, Copenhagen is now dead. But what killed it is a fundamental error of the Obama White House: that it can be all things to all causes.

Obama’s attentions are spread too thin. It is vital for the White House to demonstrate an ability to accomplish goals, be they in reorienting Iran’s course, establishing a Palestinian state, ending the embargo of Cuba, creating a new global management pact with China, establishing a Manhattan Project for the next generation or developing renewable energy — anything that might create a “Nixon goes to China” strategic leap out of the incrementalism and inertia driving America’s course now.

But Obama has pulled off nothing big yet, and until he shows an ability to change the way gravitational forces have pulled global affairs out of equilibrium, then the world will resist America’s most benign entreaties to collectively solve problems that face all of us — particularly climate change.

...is a Nixon to China moment.

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Posted by Orrin Judd at November 18, 2009 6:19 AM