Bad Week

Despite Obama's claim that "progress" was made at the G20 Summit in South Korea, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that he got hammered. Badly.

First, world economic leaders are appalled at the move by the Fed to pump $600 billion (or 900, I'm hearing both numbers) into the economy. Adjectives used by world leaders to describe Obama include "hypocritical" and "clueless". Obama's attempts to defend the move fell on deaf ears. They aren't buying what Obama is selling (and they shouldn't).

Second, he failed to seal a Free Trade Agreement with South Korea. This FTA was a done deal at the end of the Bush administration, but Obama rejected it, at least partially because the unions didn't like it. No surprise there. Unions hate free trade. It has collected dust for almost two years. Then Obama submits a different FTA to the South Koreans, and the deal is off. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has already praised Obama for insisting on a more fair and balanced deal, as Trumka defines it. Rule of thumb: if Trumka likes something, it's bad for America.

Basically, Obama was soundly rejected on a very public world stage this week. It would seem that for many world leaders, the Obama bloom is off the rose.

No word yet on whether these world leaders are racists, or whether they just didn't understand Obama's communications.