Maybe He Deserved It

Seems Barack Hussein Obama is becoming a real world leader.

Obama is changing the direction of global gravity. He is also confronting Iran without the shallowness of bombing vs. sanctions vs. public humiliation that his administration has been flirting with. In the past week, and over the next month, Obama is showing what a U.S.-led world order should look like.

This is a huge shift, for the world hasn’t had much faith in America’s abilities to deliver.

[...] In recent years, this has translated into a sense that the United States is a well-branded, globally important but underperforming country, whose influence is weakening — more like a national version of General Motors than Google.

Now, out of the blue, Obama is changing the game.

There's this, too:

Inside Tuesday's Obama-Hu meeting, Obama "reaffirmed his view that it is important for a global and sustained and balanced global economic recovery that China move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate," Jeffrey Bader, the NSC's senior director for Asia, said after the meeting. "The president also noted his concern over some market-access issues, market-access barriers, in China and the need to address them as part of the rebalancing effort."

Our sources said the U.S. officials at the meeting came out with a positive reaction, feeling that the meeting went much better than Obama's last bilateral with Hu in November in Beijing...

[...] Obama was very tough and resolute when talking about the Iran issue to Hu and said he wanted to see some progress by the end of April, we're told. Meanwhile, the Chinese, while not making any specific promises, are accepting the principle of a dual-track approach toward Iran, mixing engagement with pressure, and are working with the other countries in good faith, our sources report.

As one put it, "They're coming around."

I can't see anything but good in all of this; but I'm sure we'll be hearing from the usual RWS™, probably from their Alaska headquarters, about why it's tantamount to treason.