Can Obama Win Them Back?

The Telegraph gives us some insights into how Obama is perceived overseas.

• While the troop surge in Iraq that Mr Obama so vehemently opposed has succeeded beyond his imaginings, the “good war” he championed in Afghanistan is spiralling downwards and there are dark mutterings on the Left about it becoming his Vietnam.

• Mr Obama’s demands for more European boots on the ground in Afghanistan have already been rejected by the French and Germans.

• The leak-proof, supremely well-organised campaign and the post-election transition that was hailed as being one of the smoothest in history are over. They have given way to an at times stumbling administration that struggles to fill the cabinet, botches its message and has all but abandoned the bipartisanship candidate Mr Obama promised.

• Far from changing the world, Mr Obama has barely looked over his shoulder at it. 

• During his first, chaotic weeks in power, Mr Obama’s focus has been almost entirely domestic.

• Gordon Brown’s visit to Washington earlier this month was a public relations fiasco. Minutes before his meeting with Mr Obama in the Oval Office, British officials were still negotiating details with reluctant White House aides.

• For some in Europe, the reality of a President Obama may disappoint. 

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World’s most alienating airport:

Welcome to the Democrats’ utopia…a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world.