Our Views: Speeches buy Obama time
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Oratorical genius and rock-star appeal marked President Barack Obama’s first presidential trip abroad. His rhetorical talents have bought him the most precious thing he can have: time.
Time for stimulus packages in the United States, China and elsewhere to percolate through the financial system. Time for irrationally frozen credit markets to unclench a little bit. Time for big U.S. banks to make a little money so they’re no longer as insolvent. Time for international lenders to work with the troubled economies of Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
Time for the drop in oil prices to undermine the financial reserves of troublesome nations such as Venezuela and Russia. Even, perhaps, a little time for the political crises in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to work themselves out, and thus set up a better playing field for new negotiations there.
A president needs time. Policy and prog-ress rarely move as fast as the 24/7 news cycle.
The intractable problems of the Middle East and the fractious politics of Turkey — increasingly, a vital center for the region and for international relations — were among the subjects brilliantly addressed by Obama. He also showed the flag with U.S. troops in Iraq.
At the same time, the initial reason for the trip was the world economy. Once again, many people believe the actions of the G-20 industrial nations are inadequate to the scope of the problem. The World Bank predicts a 2 percent decline in the world economy this year, the worst performance since World War II. The more than $1 trillion in international lending or other devices for dealing with economic collapse were cobbled together but hopefully will have some effect.
That, too, takes time. Maybe Obama’s voyages haven’t changed the world in a first trip. But they’ve bought him some time. And that is a real gain for the president.
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