When it comes to foreign policy, it's even worse. (At least the Nixon Administration's foreign policy was quite competent and engaging.) In the almost five and a half years Obama has held office, their isn't a single foreign affairs 'win' his administration can claim, but dozens of mis-steps and outright disasters trailing in his wake.
Not than any of the liberal members of academia will ever admit it, but the 'moderate' members of academia aren't so close-minded. ('Moderate' as defined by the Chicago Tribune, so take the description with a grain of salt.)
Charles Lipson, a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, asked two simple questions of a group of two dozen Chicago leaders, described by him as “some Democrats, some Republicans”, and the response he received was telling.
I asked a simple question, “Can anyone name a significant American achievement in world affairs over the past five years?”With a foreign policy that seems to designed to disengage us from the rest of the world, is it any wonder our allies no longer trust us and our adversaries see us as weak and vulnerable and are working to fill the vacuum that has been left by our 'withdrawal' from the rest of the world? It has been apparent right from the beginning that Obama's plan was to 'act nice' and hope our enemies would stop seeing us as a threat and in turn would also play nice. But the only the first half of that plan has worked, meaning our adversaries no longer see us as a threat and are making moves to expand their influence to the detriment of us and our allies. All it has done is emboldened our enemies because they know our response will be in the form of words and not actions.
The room was completely silent. Since the group had traveled widely, I posed a second question, “Have any of you visited countries where relations with America are better than five years ago?” Again, silence.
These were people who zip all over the globe and deal with senior officials. Many had backed Barack Obama’s historic presidential candidacy in 2008 and his re-election in 2012. Yet they were stumped when asked to name any recent achievement in American foreign policy.
Assuming Obama doesn't find some way of remaining in office after January 20, 2017, any president following Obama, Democrat or Republican, will have a lot of work on their hands to repair America's image, regain the trust of our allies (assuming we have any left by then), and to bring the fear of utter destruction back into the minds of our adversaries. If the adolescent foreign policy of the present occupant of the White House continues after he leaves office, our nation will find itself standing alone because we have alienated our allies and emboldened our enemies.
This is what happens when you elect a clueless, incompetent politician who is good at campaigning running the country. Our President has found that campaigning is easy and that governing is not...and he's been incapable of making the switch from campaign mode to governing mode. We see it every time he speaks in public – his speeches always sound more like he's still campaigning rather than running the country. The electorate became so enamored of this cult of personality that they ignored Obama's real accomplishments, which were few enough and nothing worth crowing about.
One has to wonder what would have happened if it had been Hillary who had been elected president rather than Barack. I have a feeling we would have been in a much better place in comparison, both economically and diplomatically, and that's saying a lot considering I have little liking for Hillary in any way, shape, or form.