Oliver Willis

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There’s an article moving up on Memeorandum that is trying to cast President Obama’s trip to Asia as a failure.

When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it’s not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.

The article goes on to cite no less an “expert” than Newt Gingrich, yes, Newt Gingrich, to confirm the author’s initial thesis. When you see an article like this, you need to check the byline. I’ve learned that over these years, especially in the European press a seemingly straight news item like this tends to be constructed more like an opinion piece – and either through ignorance or intentional deception it’s linked by American conservatives as if it were news. In this case the author is one Gabor Steingart, and to put it mildly, it looks like Gabor Steingart doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

Here’s some previous “reporting” from the campaign by Gabor Steingart:

The euphoria is gone, the friendly fire has started: Barack Obama is suddenly looking less like a superstar and more like just another candidate. His message isn’t hitting home with the three most important groups of voters: women, older Americans and blue-collar workers.

All of those people who’ve been dreaming of America’s first black president now have to slowly wake up. It’ll happen one day, hopefully, but not in this election. And perhaps his name will be Barack Obama. But that first black president will have a more mature personality than that which Obama, 46, can offer American voters today.

The senator from Illinois has now lost two primaries, losses that have turned the former superstar back into an ordinary candidate. And after the CNN debate on Monday night, one thing is clear: Obama is a candidate under friendly fire.

Here’s what Steingart wrote after the Iowa caucus:

Once upon a time there was a young African-American candidate who wanted to become president. Obama’s story sounds like a fairy tale, and one would like to believe it. But despite his impressive victory in Iowa, he has scant hope of reaching the White House.

And after New Hampshire:

The Obama revolution has foundered in New Hampshire, where Democratic voters mistrusted the shooting star’s emotional rhetoric of change. Hillary Clinton’s sober realpolitik has won the day, and that’s a good thing.

February 2008:

If democracy functions only half as well as the market economy, the Obama bubble will burst. The burning question is: When? Will it happen before the Democratic nomination this August — or not until afterwards?

Another from February 2008:

Try as he might, Obama is failing so far to win over ordinary people. It’s hard to whip up enthusiasm among the down-to-earth voters of the center ground, people who are too preoccupied with the everyday problems of life to get swept up by Obama’s grand pledge to turn over a new leaf in the history book. His message doesn’t have much impact among them.

March 2008:

Of course, love is always a question of the time of day and the lighting. And there is much to suggest that the love story between Obama and Democratic voters will not continue as romantically as it has up until now.

August 2008:

Obama should be fearing these divided Democrats far more than the attacks by the conservatives. A nervous party is a dangerous party. Dwindling confidence of victory has often been the harbinger of defeat. The Clinton Democrats are only lurking in the wings waiting to build a coalition with the doubters — for the time after Obama.

April 2008 was a doozy!

[Condoleezza] Rice stands a good chance of being nominated as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Because of his age — he is already 71 — Senator Join McCain might only serve a single term. Standing at his side, she could launch her own presidential campaign from day one. While the two Democrats continue to tear each other to shreds in the run-up to the Democratic nominating convention in August, Rice would emerge as a beaming fourth player. Her entry into the White House, in 2012 or possibly even earlier, would then fall within the range of the possible.

Needless to say, the dude who wrote the obituary of the Obama campaign in January of 2008 may not be the best guy to be writing the obituary of the Obama presidency’s foreign policy in its first year.