President Barack Obama will visit Europe at the end of March, returning to cities that rapturously received him last July, and will venture into Eastern Europe with a visit to the Czech Republic. The reception will be edgier than last time, for both economic and political reasons.
The economic anxieties are shared on both sides of the Atlantic. The Eastern European political anxieties are unique, and regrettably have been heightened by clumsy Obama administration diplomacy. The president will have to repair that damage or risk new rifts with allies.
Last week a special meeting of the European Union ended unhappily when Germany and France refused to back bailouts for Eastern European members facing dire finances. The economic strain poses a challenge to the cohesion of the European Union.
When I read things like this it reminds me of the parallels between President Obama and The Presiding Bishop. They were both underprepared for their respective positions and have been inadequately served by their staff that in some cases knows better.
At the risk of starting a long discussion let me point out that any person or nation that buys large holdings of risky stocks should be financially prepared to lose money in the market as well as looking for a gain. To see stockholders screaming and begging for Government bailout for a depressed market is hard to take. To see some Europeans doing the same thing, and screaming for a US bailout inferring it is all our fault, is even harder to take. We really didn’t get a bailout in the 1920’s-1930’s but there was a group of survivors that made it. We cannot support the world and we should not even try!!