Outcomes have been disappointing regarding the global economy. But Obama s basic understanding of America s role in the world and thus his approach to the economic crisis have been firmly grounded in reality. For example, he recognized the interdependence of the U.S. and Chinese economic systems and avoided acting as if he was alone in the driver s seat in that aspect of the relationship. He was pushed hard and steadily on the currency issue, pressuring China to appreciate its currency, without overplaying his hand. He also did not shirk from recognizing that the global economic crisis required American leadership and that only Washington could really galvanize a coordinated international response. Furthermore, Obama s openness and multilateral approach to global issues, both on the campaign trail and once in the Oval Office, may have helped defuse what otherwise might have been a fairly substantial amount of anti-Americanism. The global recession clearly had its roots in earlier mismanagement of the American financial system and could have caused a greater backlash against the United States with a different leader in the White House.
The above enumeration of component management of most major foreign policy issues, while significant, may strike some as damning with faint praise. We sense that Obama himself might react that way. Certainly, his ambitions have been grand, and simply managing well an overwhelming inbox would probably not strike him as enough. Yet that has been the major thrust of his record to date.
Obama s vulnerability to criticism very much reflects his rhetoric, on the campaign trail but also well into 2009 as president, which is more evocative of Kennedy or Reagan than of anyone since. He mapped out a vision of where he would like to see the world move—of how he would like to bend history in the direction of justice—in ways designed to convey seriousness and to demand consideration from audiences at home and abroad. His ambitions have extended to matters of global economic inequality, war and peace, cross-cultural and interreligious harmony, energy and the environment. Certainly, his rhetorical skills are among the most impressive in modern American presidential history, and his ideas on big issues of the day are as seriously reasoned as those of any recent president. He has laid out those visions in his public addresses as explicitly as any president has ever done. As one White House aide put it to us, if you want to know what President Obama thinks, read his speeches.
But his visionary goals have not been realized and in most instances are not measurably closer to success than was the case in early 2009. They are, moreover, quite often not a particularly meaningful guide to the policies Obama has pursued. This is clearly the case with regard to his loftiest aspirations, such as those of for a nuclear-weapon-free world and for a planet with far less poverty. Pursuing the former agenda aggressively is impractical in a world of huge superpower arsenals and multiple nuclear powers, most of whom want their weapons even more than Obama believes the United States needs its own. Pursuing the latter agenda with big ideas or expensive policies is impractical in light of domestic budgetary and economic realities. Obama s speeches have also failed to have much impact on such critical matters as bridging the divide with the Muslim world and engaging extremist states.
Indeed, the speeches are often academic both in the good sense of being serious, thoughtful, and provocative and in the more pejorative sense of having little clear connection to actual policy. Worse, they have raised hopes that the president s policies were then unable to deliver upon, disappointing many around the world and leading them to wonder if the speeches had been seriously intentioned in the first place. While inspirational words have their place in politics, there is a threshold beyond which aspirations become false hopes—and the conveyor of those visions sets himself up for resentment and a sense of betrayal on the part of those who once believed in him.
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