Ending summit, Obama wants 'to step up our game'

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN - President Obama and other Asia-Pacific leaders wrapped up a two-day meeting on Sunday with sweeping pledges to rectify global economic imbalances and move toward creating a regional free-trade zone, but with few concrete gains.

For Obama, it marked the end of a 10-day diplomatic and economic journey through Asia that yielded mixed results, ranging from his warm receptions in India and Indonesia to criticism for failing to conclude a free-trade pact with South Korea.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/nat ... hiaE3miUsZ

This is stepping up the game? Sounds like he should worry more about reversing this trend, not celebrating it. The following is mostly opinions, so its sure to be debated. The question is, Does Obama really want a weaker, less assertive America?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... ut/?ref=nf

The president again casually confirmed his belief in the decline of America's "outsized" influence in world affairs, noting, "We are now seeing a situation where a whole host of other countries are doing well and coming into their own and naturally they're going to be more assertive."

For some inexplicable reason, Mr. Obama welcomes the decline of America's role on the international stage. It is his most notable accomplishment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... stpop_read

None of this should be cause for celebration, because a world without American leadership is a more dangerous place. The U.S. is still the world's largest economy, the issuer of its reserve currency, and its lone military superpower. No other nation has the will or capacity to lead the way the U.S. has for 70 years, so faltering American influence will produce a vacuum in which every nation can seek narrow advantage.

I don't see where stating the obvious means Obama welcomes a diminished American role on the world stage. I would want to see a direct quote to that effect, not a biased opinion.

Sprinkle a few hundred million dollars here, a few hundred million dollars there...and you're the global hero.

archer wrote: I don't see where stating the obvious means Obama welcomes a diminished American role on the world stage. I would want to see a direct quote to that effect, not a biased opinion.

It may be opinions, but I am seeing it in a lot of articles. Here is another.

http://www.time.com/time/business/artic ... tech-yahoo

The G-20 summit revealed that the world after the financial crisis will not be the same as it was before — one led by the U.S. Today, no one leads....
....At the Seoul summit, President Obama proposed new guidelines for global economic governance, including targets for how much a country's current accounts of trade and capital could go into surplus or deficit....All of those suggestions were rebuffed.....