OBAMA ASIA TRIP SCORE: ZIP - AT 8:01 P.M. ET:  The president is flying home from his Asian trip.  He didn't get the rock star treatment he's used to getting in Western Europe, probably because Asia hasn't entered a period of decadence yet.  He also didn't get any real results, as Mike Allen in The Politico notes:

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama returns from his maiden Asian swing with none of the concrete accomplishments that White Houses typically put in place before big trips, setting up a stark test for his idealistic theory that the United States should act more like a wise neighbor than a swaggering superpower.

Idealistic theory is right.  It's great for a student government, not for a real one.

Obama’s minimalist approach was most consequential in China, where he did not meet with Christians, dissidents or bloggers, or directly challenge his hosts for repressive tactics that are again on the rise.

The Chinese in turn rebuffed longstanding U.S. concerns – whether on human rights, Iran or currency policy – in a heavily stage-managed visit where China, not Obama, clearly sought the upper hand.

If there was a merit badge for multicultural groveling, Obama would be wearing a Boy Scout sash a mile long. 

It’s an approach that carries great risk for Obama – playing straight into his critics’ accusations that his new, more multilateral style isn’t paying dividends, and worse, is making him look weak and ineffectual abroad.

Making him look weak?  He is weak.

“They don’t want this narrative that the U.S. is a declining power and China is a rising power, and the trip just reinforced that,” said Adam Segal, a senior fellow on China at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The sense of the trip was, ‘We’re not here to get in their face about these things.’”

Add to that the fact the main image of Obama abroad that really broke through to the American public out of the trip – Obama bowing to the Japanese emperor – didn’t exactly reinforce the image of a muscular leader abroad.

Yeah, that doesn't play well outside the Harvard faculty lounge.

David Axelrod, one of Obama's main political strategists, put the White House spin on things:

“This is not an immediate gratification business,” Axelrod said. “I understand that Washington is in the immediate gratification business. … [T]he ultimate measure is where these issues -- how these issues resolve in the weeks and months and years to come. And we have a greater chance for success because of this trip and others he's made.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Mike Allen puts it in English:

But the formulation puts the White House in the awkward position of promising results down the road. It wasn’t just the lack of hard results, but the tone of Obama’s remarks, even passing up opportunity to speak out more vocally against the repressive Chinese regime.

COMMENT:  Another lesson that countries don't give a damn whether an American president gets the teeny-bopper vote.  They do what's good for them.  That isn't necessarily good for us.  Most American presidents can tell the difference.  This one doesn't think it matters.

November 19, 2009