Still drunk on Hope?

My cousin (a self-declared moderate democrat) forwarded me a report by Stratfor. Stratfor is a geopolitical reporting organization which pitches their own views on what's actually happened and what's to come. They're a non-partisan reporting company, so don't go assaulting my quotes with accusations of right-wing bias.

I remember one of the popular sentiments during election was that,

"the world hates Americans! We need to change this. We need to be liked, that way there can be global cohesion, and other countries will help us with our interests instead of going against it all the time. We need Obama to usher in the new era of global change."

There's actually a good logic to this. Popularity/being liked by other people helps. You have to be popular to win elections. Being liked gives you a lot of leeway when you make mistakes. Heck it'll probably get you hired or push you to the back of the firing queue. However, there are limits to this kind of thinking, and Obama's milkround in the EU goes to show for this. I quote from the report:

"...Obama’s latest trip to Europe focused on two American demands and one European — primarily German — demand. Obama wanted the Germans to increase their economic stimulus plan because Germany is the largest exporter in the world... he wanted the Germans to build domestic demand and not just rely on the United States to pull Germany out of recession. But the Germans refused, arguing that they could not afford a major stimulus now (when in fact they have no reason to be flexible, because the U.S. stimulus is going to help them no matter what Germany does).

...Germany’s and France’s unwillingness to provide substantially more support in Afghanistan gave Obama a second disappointment....The French and Germans essentially were as unwilling to deal with Obama as they were with Bush on this matter.

...Obama tried to open the door to Tehran by indicating that he was prepared to talk to the Iranians without preconditions — that is, without any prior commitment on the part of the Iranians regarding nuclear development. The Iranians reacted by rejecting the opening, essentially saying Obama’s overture was merely a gesture, not a substantial shift in American policy." - Source: Stratfor (full article)

It reminds me of Godfather III.

To set the scene, Don Corleone is passing out dividends for all the heads of the family for their initial investments in his business. Joey Zasa is pissed because he gets nothing, and voices that he's offered value to all the families. Don Corleone responds:

"You all know Joey Zasa. He is, I admit, an important man. His picture is on the cover of the New York Times magazine... He is famous. Who knows? Maybe one day he'll make all of you popular."

To be honest, I'd rather do business with the Godfather than Joey Zasa. I feel like Americans got sold on popularity and a lot of hope for change, and we're seeing a glimpse of what soft-positional bargaining will do in the international arena.

Wanting to be liked is such a sycophantic notion. At the negotiating table, it's like pleading for emotional alms because hey, I'm a popular guy and people like me! What we need is respect, not popularity. We should've sent Hillary in there, because we all know who has the bigger sack.

The only success I've seen so far internationally is opening the doors to negotiate with Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez, both of them haters of America.