PERHAPS THE ULTIMATE DAMNATION...:

Obama's world outreach teetering (Jim Lobe, 11/05/09, Asia Times)

[D]isappointment is clearly on the rise among those here and in the region who believed that Obama's realist foreign policy strategy of "engaging" foes, and his oft-repeated determination to achieve a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict "from day one" of his presidency promised rapid improvement in Washington's standing after eight years of decline under former president George W Bush.

"There is a general concern now, especially in the Arab world, that the administration is not delivering with respect to any issues in the region," said Chas Freeman, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia who withdrew his appointment to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC) this year in the face of a media campaign by neo-conservative critics close to Israel's Likud Party.
"I think there's been quite a difference between how Obama as a person is perceived and how the US government as an institution is perceived," he added. "I think what may be happening is that Obama is sinking into the generally negative view of the US government in the region rather than transcending it as he once did."

"He started really well, particularly in his speeches in Istanbul [in April] and in Cairo [in June], in changing how the region perceives America and in setting forth a vision of the kinds of relationships he wanted," said Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Project at the New America Foundation.

"But those words have not been followed up by the kind of deep restructuring of policy vis-a-vis Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and the Palestinians that [former President Richard] Nixon implemented toward China," he added.

...that one aspires to be Nixonian but can't meet the standard.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 4, 2009 6:32 AM