Asian Gracefully

Preferring, I guess, casting aspersions on the "Occupy" movement, or equalizing blame for the super-failure, the media haven't had much to say about our president's just-completed trip to Asia. I must say I hadn't followed it too closely, either. I'd noted the agreement on troops down under, but that's about it. Turns out, we missed some stuff:

The cascade of statements, deployments, agreements and announcements from the United States and its regional associates in the last week has to be one of the most unpleasant shocks for China’s leadership — ever. The US is moving forces to Australia, Australia is selling uranium to India, Japan is stepping up military actions and coordinating more closely with the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea, Myanmar is slipping out of China’s column and seeking to reintegrate itself into the region, Indonesia and the Philippines are deepening military ties with the the US: and all that in just one week. If that wasn’t enough, a critical mass of the region’s countries have agreed to work out a new trade group that does not include China, while the US, to applause, has proposed that China’s territorial disputes with its neighbors be settled at a forum like the East Asia Summit — rather than in the bilateral talks with its smaller, weaker neighbors that China prefers.

...It was a surprise diplomatic attack, aimed at reversing a decade of chit chat about American decline and disinterest in Asia, aimed also at nipping the myth of “China’s inexorable rise” in the bud.

[...]

...it was as decisive a diplomatic victory as anyone is likely to see. Congratulations should go to President Obama and his national security team. The State Department, the Department of Defense and the White House have clearly been working effectively together on an intensive and complex strategy. They avoided leaks, they coordinated effectively with half a dozen countries, they deployed a range of instruments of power. In the field of foreign policy, this was a coming of age of the Obama administration and it was conceived and executed about as flawlessly as these things ever can be.

Seems like sort of a big deal. But, you know, it doesn't fit the Foxonewtonian mittstatements that Obama hates America, doesn't consider it exceptional, has no foreign policy, is in over his head. The narrative pumped relentlessly into the brains of teabaggers like sludge into a cesspool.