Christie, you mused about Obama earlier....so a little insight....
WASHINGTON — Less than three months into President Obama’s first term, a top White House national security official told reporters that the new commander in chief’s diplomacy would be different from the regular-guy friendships with foreign leaders sought by President George W. Bush.
No longer would the goal be “to establish some, you know, buddy-buddy relationship,” said the official, Michael A. McFaul.
The lack of such a relationship was starkly evident in Washington last week, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took the extraordinary step of de nouncing Mr. Obama’s Iran policy in a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. The president responded icily hours later from the Oval Office. The two did not meet face to face.
Mr. Obama’s strained association with Mr. Netanyahu, who has clashed with other American presidents as well, has been difficult from the start. But the absence of any real connection between them underscores the rule, not the exception, for Mr. Obama, who has only occasionally invested time in cultivating foreign leaders.
It is a cool, businesslike approach, similar to the way Mr. Obama deals with members of Congress, donors and activists at home. But historians and some of the president’s former foreign policy advisers say the distance the president keeps from foreign leaders leaves him without the durable relationships that previous presidents forged to help smooth disagreements and secure reluctant cooperation.
“Personal relationships are not his style,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former special envoy for Middle East peace in the Obama administration who is now vice president of the Brookings Institution. Mr. Indyk said Mr. Bush and President Bill Clinton “yukked it up with everybody.”
“With Obama, some he invested in, some he clicked with,” Mr. Indyk said. “But you could count them on one hand.”
White House officials say that while warm relationships may be desirable, they do not necessarily lead to success in American foreign policy, and that Mr. Obama has made headway without them.
“The president is driven by an assessment of our interests in dealing with world leaders,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama. “It’s more about how do you get off the talking points with somebody, see where they are coming from.”
Mr. Rhodes pointed out that Mr. Obama has methodically assembled support from like-minded leaders for sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, for the fight against the Islamic State, and in some cases to confront climate change.
Robert Dallek, a historian who has written extensively on the American presidency, called Mr. Obama a “cool customer” and said he appears not to exude the kind of warmth that characterized the relationships between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher or between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
“If a foreign leader connects with another head of government, it can be salutary in helping them work through difficulties or problems that may exist,” Mr. Dallek said. “If they have a lot of animus toward each other, it impedes the diplomatic give-and-take.”
Churchill spent several weeks at the White House bonding with Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a time that Mr. Dallek said helped them form “a kind of comfort zone” that deepened the already strong relationship between the United States and Britain during World War II.
Aides say it is unlikely that a friendship between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu could ease the fundamental disagreement the two have over how to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. But former advisers say the hard feelings have made the rift worse.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/politics/with-foreign-leaders-obama-keeps-it-mostly-business.html?_r=0
Guess Obama didn't make many friends...
WASHINGTON — Less than three months into President Obama’s first term, a top White House national security official told reporters that the new commander in chief’s diplomacy would be different from the regular-guy friendships with foreign leaders sought by President George W. Bush.
No longer would the goal be “to establish some, you know, buddy-buddy relationship,” said the official, Michael A. McFaul.
The lack of such a relationship was starkly evident in Washington last week, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took the extraordinary step of de nouncing Mr. Obama’s Iran policy in a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. The president responded icily hours later from the Oval Office. The two did not meet face to face.
Mr. Obama’s strained association with Mr. Netanyahu, who has clashed with other American presidents as well, has been difficult from the start. But the absence of any real connection between them underscores the rule, not the exception, for Mr. Obama, who has only occasionally invested time in cultivating foreign leaders.
It is a cool, businesslike approach, similar to the way Mr. Obama deals with members of Congress, donors and activists at home. But historians and some of the president’s former foreign policy advisers say the distance the president keeps from foreign leaders leaves him without the durable relationships that previous presidents forged to help smooth disagreements and secure reluctant cooperation.
“Personal relationships are not his style,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former special envoy for Middle East peace in the Obama administration who is now vice president of the Brookings Institution. Mr. Indyk said Mr. Bush and President Bill Clinton “yukked it up with everybody.”
“With Obama, some he invested in, some he clicked with,” Mr. Indyk said. “But you could count them on one hand.”
White House officials say that while warm relationships may be desirable, they do not necessarily lead to success in American foreign policy, and that Mr. Obama has made headway without them.
“The president is driven by an assessment of our interests in dealing with world leaders,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama. “It’s more about how do you get off the talking points with somebody, see where they are coming from.”
Mr. Rhodes pointed out that Mr. Obama has methodically assembled support from like-minded leaders for sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, for the fight against the Islamic State, and in some cases to confront climate change.
Robert Dallek, a historian who has written extensively on the American presidency, called Mr. Obama a “cool customer” and said he appears not to exude the kind of warmth that characterized the relationships between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher or between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
“If a foreign leader connects with another head of government, it can be salutary in helping them work through difficulties or problems that may exist,” Mr. Dallek said. “If they have a lot of animus toward each other, it impedes the diplomatic give-and-take.”
Churchill spent several weeks at the White House bonding with Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a time that Mr. Dallek said helped them form “a kind of comfort zone” that deepened the already strong relationship between the United States and Britain during World War II.
Aides say it is unlikely that a friendship between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu could ease the fundamental disagreement the two have over how to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. But former advisers say the hard feelings have made the rift worse.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/politics/with-foreign-leaders-obama-keeps-it-mostly-business.html?_r=0
Guess Obama didn't make many friends...
)
I'm suggesting he take him somewhere in DC, or maybe Camp David. Is that so hard to understand?