Obama’s World Tour

After a week that included three international summits, a series of meetings with foreign leaders and continental town hall meetings, President Barack Obama solidified his standing as Leader of the Free World. Although he’s extremely popular overseas, he confirmed this status — from his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about nuclear arms reduction to discussions about the sprawling financial crisis at the G20 Summit to today’s address in the Turkish Parliament calling for “a partnership with the Muslim world.” It’s been at least eight years since the world had seen an American President demonstrate his diplomatic prowess through a combination of intellect, confidence and statesmanship.

But he wasn’t alone in taking a big step in restoring our nation’s stature in the world community: First Lady Michelle Obama made her indelible mark with grace and style. She also delivered her own brand of inspirational, uplifting message when she spoke to a group of underprivileged girls at a London school, telling them that they could achieve their dreams through strong values and hard work.

This unprecedented world tour had many historic comparisons. The most prominent and inevitable was that of John and Jacqueline Kennedy, who took their first international trip as president and first lady a few months after President Kennedy took office. Although they are from two distinct eras, both couples have come to represent the youth, vitality, and vision of a nation in the throes of generational and political shifts. Unlike Kennedy, however, Obama did not suffer a Krushev moment: During a meeting at the 1961 Vienna Summit, Nikita Krushev, premier of then-Communist Soviet Union, placed another layer of ice on the Cold War when he lectured and challenged the young president. On the social front, however, the international press had been so captivated by the charm of Jackie Kennedy 48 years ago that JFK made the famous quip: “I’m the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.”

Michelle Obama elicited similar responses from the media that followed her every move — most notably, when she and the Queen of England touched in a show of mutual admiration. A note of irony: When the Obamas presented the Queen with the gift of an iPod loaded with show tunes, one of the songs including “Camelot” from the play about King Arthur’s mythical court and its representation of hope and optimism. Camelot, with all its allegory, became the theme of the Kennedy presidency after his assassination in 1963.

Pundits also made other historic references to Obama’s trip, comparing the London G20 Summit — the one-day conference of countries that represent 85% of the world economy — to a similar meeting in the United Kingdom in 1933 when 66 world leaders gathered to grapple with the ravaging effects of the Great Depression (the meeting fell apart when Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused

to have any restrictions imposed on America related to solving the financial crisis) or the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, which led to the creation of an new international monetary system and gave birth to the International Monetary Fund. In more recent history, President George Bush’s approach to foreign policy had made him so unpopular at the November 2008 G20 Summit that foreign leaders refused to shake his hand.

At last week’s G20, Obama took a different tack. He spoke of a collective effort among world leaders to fix the global economy. Initially, it was reported that European leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both of whom were incensed by the lax regulation of America’s financial community, would bolt from the proceedings. But that didn’t happen.

For one, Obama’s popularity among their constituencies helped bolster their standing. Although he wasn’t able to gain a greater commitment by attendees to use fiscal stimulus as a remedy, the president managed to receive a pledge of $1.1 trillion for those countries most badly battered by the economic downturn.

It wasn’t the “global new deal” that he and the conference host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had hoped for but many observers said they made substantive progress with the development of a communiqué that called for, among other initiatives, the IMF to provide more financial support

to developing nations and heavier regulation of international finance. In bringing these diverse nations together, Obama continued to call for patience and persistence — a common theme in his domestic message. In contrasting today’s international complexities to the resolution of global issues some 68 years ago, he told the press: “If there’s just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy, that’s an easier negotiation. That’s not the world we live in … and it shouldn’t be.”

In fact, the week-long Obama Tour gave Americans a view into the difficulties of navigating this interdependent, complicated world. When the commander-in-chief attended the NATO Summit in Strasbourg, France — an event that commemorated the military alliance’s 60th anniversary — he gained 5,000 more troops and trainers for the war in Afghanistan. However, the deployment pales in size next to 21,000 additional troops that the administration has pledged in its fight against the resurgent Taliban.

Moreover, North Korea’s recent launch of a rocket capable of carrying a nuclear warhead — officials claim it was part of space research — was cited as a new test of Obama’s resolve. Immediately, the president condemned North Korea for threatening peace and stability and called for an international response. And even though audiences that rivaled rock concerts came to hear him speak, Obama still witnessed mass protests and an anti-American sentiment — a hangover from the Bush Era — during the G20 and NATO summits.

He addressed this sentiment at a town hall session in Strasbourg. “In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there are times when America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive,” he told the crowd. “But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what’s bad.”

He added, “On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated. They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America.”

The president and the first lady continue to make significant and historic strides. For African Americans, their world tour offered a series of proud moment in which an African American couple operating at the highest level can command a dominant, powerful presence on the world stage, forever shattering the images of the past.

For the nation as a whole, it was a restorative event, driven by an engaged, confident leader respected by international powers. For the world, it signaled a new beginning initiated by a visionary committed to bridging the global divide.