There are Americans who might wonder at a President who showed he cared more about relations with Malaysia than he did about them. That this President is not as indifferent as the last one to Americans unlikely to vote Republican or give money to Republican campaigns may not end up hurting him as much as some now appear to believe.

Then again, there are criticisms aplenty to be made of how President Obama has organized his administration and its priorities. A favorite quip making the rounds in Washington is that the government ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time -- just because one issue is occupying most of the President's time doesn't mean policy on other issues must drift. That's only true if the President is prepared to delegate the making as well as the presentation of policy to a person or people able to handle that responsibility. Obama isn't, outside of defense procurement and affairs relating directly to Central Command's area of responsibility.

That doesn't explain the South Korea trade agreement, which is in abeyance because the Obama administration doesn't favor trade agreements. It's just wrong about that, and would be no matter how it was structured.

I don't even want to address the military resources question. I'd be debating with someone who was fine with wasting hundreds of billions of dollars, not to mention thousands of American lives, on the adventure in Iraq, and is now accusing the President elected to clean up the mess of not "taking on the left" to show he's "serious." Why would I do that?

Blumenthal, I didnt even bother to read your article. You either dont have the overall picture of the President's domestic as well as his foreign policies or you are just playing a devil's advocate. While, I will agree that the President has been negligient in his relation with allies, not visiting Asia is not a mistake.

A most idiotic article. Fighting for his domestic agenda should be job # 1. Here is Ron Brownstein:
Win or lose, Obama has pursued health care reform as tenaciously as any president has pursued any domestic initiative in decades. Health care has now been his presidency's central domestic focus for a full year. That's about as long as it took to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, originally introduced by John F. Kennedy and driven home by Lyndon Johnson. Rarely since World War II has a president devoted so much time, at so much political cost, to shouldering a single priority through Congress. It's reasonable to debate whether Obama should have invested so heavily in health care. But it's difficult to quibble with Emanuel's assessment that once the president placed that bet, "He has shown fortitude, stamina, and strength."

i have noticed that fp has been going in fox's direction lately, with a series of utterly idiotic Obama bashing articles.

Right or wrong, we have a pretty good idea of what the next 2+ years will hold. I have seen it written that, as far as politics go, it is better to stick with a wrong decision (even when you and everybody knows it is wrong) than it is to change your mind because the press beat you up over "waffling" more than making bad decisions. This means that the Democrats will not ever abandon what has become an obviously unwanted health care overhaul. It also means the Republicans will never back down from opposing it even if it changed enough to satisfy the public.

My only concern is that many high ranking officials (including the president) appear to not care what the people want. That is the one thing that should not be tolerated. Either way, the course has been set and only time will tell if it was good or bad.

this is the first idiotic argument i have heard in FP. how can anybody say healthcare is obama's making? republican's made it so and nobody did anything to tamp them down. its the right thing todo. a strong america both economically and socially, is necessary for any forign nations to trust in.. the way the currrent healthcare is managed is not sustainable and the time to make these changes is last decade. its way past time. asia and australia can surely wait 2 more months

You can tell that the right wing pundits have weekly strategy sessions because suddenly a half-dozen propagandists proffer the same talking point about HOW THE OPPOSITION IS SCREWING IT ALL UP. The past week the meme they've attempted to launch is that Obama is offending allies.

The evidence is slim to non-existent. It mostly exists in the imaginations of the faux pundits. (I asked an acquaintance who follows the French news daily how much this came up. The response: Never.)

Other leaders would presumably understand that this is a time of economic crisis and managing Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and Iran is already a huge foreign-policy agenda. If any of them feels snubbed that they haven't received more warm fuzzies from Obama, it only proves their childish nature.

This piece is a bunch of hot air.

Can you be serious, Mr. Blumenthal, in objecting to the absence of stiumulus funds for DoD? Are you not aware that DoD spending has increased substantially since Obama took office? and that this will continue throughout the duration of ARRA? There are, sadly, many opportunities outside of ARRA to increase DoD spending.

That Obama cannot muster majorities for a South Korean trade agreement is wholly unsurprising given the current very high level of unemployment and recent near-collapse of the North American auto industry, and reveals nothing about Obama's leadership or priorities.

This piece reads more like a screed against health-care reform than a serious piece about foreign policy.

Most Australians, I suspect, like the Australians I have known, marvel at the fact that such a great nation as the US leaves its citizens so exposed to lack of health-care coverage, and would fully understand the importance of today's vote.

P.S., Mr. Blumenthal, it's "whit" not "wit."

I would not expect Blumenthal to be happy about the passage of the health care reform bill. After all, it was the right wing's wet dream to stop this President's entire agenda in its tracks from the outset. So, now they want to distract us with these tiresome arguments that the BHO has made the world less safe by being preoccupied with a key part of the domestic agenda, while minimizing the successes he has achieved, and spouting messages that appeal to the tea-party crowd. Blumenthal is just another neocon flack who spent much of the last decade with his nose up the crack of the Bush-Cheney crowd.

Ignore the fact that these wing-nuts have no answer for any of the financial or economic problems the US faces, except more tax cuts, and more military interventions. To them, domestic policy should be limited to whatever benefits the military industrial complex and the money-changers.

Folks like Blumenthal will never acknowledge the fact that the previous administration squandered hundreds of billions of dollars and more than 4,000 lives in a war that still lacks any rational justification. And at the same time, they blow the bugle for more foreign military adventures, regardless of the cost in human lives and national treasure.

This constant division is what causes more problems in the world than anything else. It's about time these people got their act together and started working towards a common cause. These are intelligent people we are talking about, they have authority and respected positions. Yet they argue like lesser people - they act a lot like children let's be honest. They follow one agenda or another and no one ever agrees on anything. No matter how Heat resistant tape they think they are it doesn't change the facts. No matter how loud they shout it doesn't change the fact. In the end the only two things that appear to count are money and power. This is a great shame!