From Here to Fraternity...

With the Obama European Tour still in full effect, and with new tour dates recently added for France, China and Russia in the near future, it would seem the overall consensus is that the trip is a success. Almost every article written contains numerous quotes by foreign leaders praising Obama’s leadership style, as well as his ability to bring nations together and shepherd agreements. These were things that most Americans already knew. But the articles don’t stop there.

Despite the positive overseas reviews, the trip is being presented as all style/ no substance affair here in the states. Sure, the President looked good, and took positive steps for diplomacy, but was essentially turned down with the majority of his requests. His strong desire to have many of these countries push through stronger stimulus packages was overwhelmingly rejected. The 1 trillion that was agreed to will do little more than help some of the smaller countries survive the economic downturn that otherwise would have completely failed. But really, is falling short of all his goals really a failure?

Unfortunately, we all don’t get laid on every first date. Sometimes, we settle for a goodnight kiss, leaving the door open to “get some” in the future. Is that a failure? Since when is restoring diplomacy and even forming friendships with nations that had no love for us in the last eight years a disappointment? This is how success is achieved. Laying a foundation that allows the President to, at the very least, pick up the phone to France without being ignored or slammed down is a drastic improvement from what existed just a few months ago. Successfully delivering the message that we, as Americans, are not a country of arrogant exceptionalists, and are willing, in fact, eager, to work with the nations we share a planet with is reason enough to consider this trip quite the accomplishment.

And despite not walking away from this summit with every goal being checked off, the rest of the world at least now knows this: we can take rejection with dignity. Let’s not forget the hissy fit thrown by the Bush administration when the world was overwhelmingly, and rightfully so, against the war in Iraq. We essentially told them all to go screw themselves and established our Coalition of the Willing (you remember that, right? It was made up of some very powerful allies, like Poland, Morocco, my dog Skip, and the ant farm I had in 6th grade), went and lied to the UN, and then did whatever the hell we felt like. showing the world that we actually have respect for them is a huge step in the right direction, and brings us a lot closer to being able to check a few more of those boxes on our list.