Obama and America’s decline

As a candidate, Barack Obama promised to earn new respect for American leadership around the world but a new
Gallup Poll shows his miserable failure in that effort.

Only 41 percent of Americans think “leaders of other countries respect Barack Obama” while a clear majority — 53 percent — say “they don’t respect him.” Even worse, barely a third of Americans feel “satisfied with the position of the United States in the world today.” A crushing 61 percent say they’re dissatisfied with the standing of their country — exactly the same percentage who shared that feeling in 2007, during the darkest days of the Iraq War under President Bush.

Critics today rightly focus on President Obama’s failures in economic management, and our feeble, faltering recovery. But future historians will emphasize the president’s mismanagement of foreign policy and the sadly diminished American role in world affairs.