As a Student of Realpolitik, Obama’s Catching On Fast: Dziennik, Poland

In the realm of getting the job done – principle be damned – how is President Obama doing? According to columnist Zbigniew Parafianowicz of Poland’s Dziennik newspaper, the brass tacks deal-making Barack Obama has been pursuing shows that he’s adjusting well to the inevitable compromises of power.

For Poland’s Dziennik, Zbigniew Parafianowicz writes in part:

“Sunday: a meeting with Dimitry Medvedev, reinforcing the reset of U.S.-Russian relations. Monday: a dinner with Chinese leader Hu Jintao and declarations of a strategic relationship with Beijing. … Obama’s progressive supporters will be disappointed. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate not only absolves the sins of his eastern partners, but makes deals with them that would make the odious George W. Bush proud. It is an exemplary Democrat, not a hawkish neocon, who drives the nail into the coffin of the climate agreement. For Obama, the condition of his nation’s industrial capacity is more important than mantras of deadly emissions.”

By Zbigniew Parafianowicz

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka

November 18, 2009

Poland – Dziennik – Original Article (Polish)
Sunday: a meeting with Dimitri Medvedev, reinforcing the reset of U.S.-Russian relations. Monday: a dinner with Chinese leader Hu Jintao and declarations of a strategic relationship with Beijing. Barack Obama’s trip to Asia is definitive proof that the American President, changing from a media-celebrated, idealistic politician who dreams of world peace and harmony, is stepping into shoes firmly planted in the school of political realism.

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One Response to “As a Student of Realpolitik, Obama’s Catching On Fast: Dziennik, Poland”

1. Leonidas says:

   November 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm

   Meanwhile in Germany:
   http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,151…
   

   When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.

   Upon taking office, Obama said that he wanted to listen to the world, promising respect instead of arrogance. But Obama’s currency isn’t as strong as he had believed. Everyone wants respect, but hardly anyone is willing to pay for it. Interests, not emotions, dominate the world of realpolitik. The Asia trip revealed the limits of Washington’s new foreign policy: Although Obama did not lose face in China and Japan, he did appear to have lost some of his initial stature.

   There are many indications that the man in charge at the White House will take a tougher stance in the future. Obama's advisors fear a comparison with former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, even more than with Bush.

   From England
   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_…
   

   For most Americans, the most talked-about moment of the trip was not the Great Wall visit but his low bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan, which the president’s right-wing critics assailed as “a spineless blunder” and excessively deferential.

   While some commentators acknowledged that behind-the-scenes progress may have been made on issues such as North Korea, financial stability and human rights, even the pro-Obama New York Times noted in an editorial yesterday that “the trip wasn’t all that we had hoped it would be”.