AP "Analysis: Pragmatic Obama gets what he can" - Copenhagen

[TomCADem]

I know many folks will insist that President Obama should have refused any deal in order to draw attention to China's refusal to agree to verification protocals. Yet, those who insist that President Obama is over cautious will also miss that he did take a big risk that he participation could have resulted in no deal as was the case with the Chicago Olympics. Perhaps the better political approach would have been to pound the table and blame everyone else when no deal emerged, and play to xenophobia at home. That way, he could capitalize on American distrust of the "other."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34484946/ns/politics-white_house/

COPENHAGEN - The world is coming to know President Barack Obama, the pragmatist whose stand at a messy global warming summit underscored the way he leads: Let's get done what we can, imperfect as it is.

When Obama impatiently told other leaders here to rally behind a climate change deal despite its limitations, he sounded like he was talking about his health care push or his economic stimulus plan at home. The president whose election campaign was about change knows that governing — and re-election — are about showing results.

"I'm sure that many consider this an imperfect framework," Obama said Friday to a gathering of leaders from 193 countries. "No country will get everything that it wants."

On several levels, watching Obama in Copenhagen was like getting a mini-course in what makes him tick as a leader.

He's learning the frustrating limits of his powers of persuasion. Yet he presses on, willing to jet across the ocean and plunge into a long day of unpredictable diplomacy in pursuit of a deal to fight global warming.

At the same time, he's hemmed in by the high expectations he helped create. Across the world, so many people have come to see Obama the way they want that his actions often don't fit their perceptions, and he finds it ever harder to meet people's wishes.

[Cha]

1. Obama's doing fine..

It took 8 years to fuck up our country in so many ways..

"At the same time, he's hemmed in by the high expectations he helped create. Across the world, so many people have come to see Obama the way they want that his actions often don't fit their perceptions, and he finds it ever harder to meet people's wishes."

[jefferson_dem]

2. Pragmatism is so refreshing.

We had enough dogmatism for two decades from the previous chimpish occupant of the Oval.