While the American press’s legs are all a-tingle over Obama, the Comeback Kid, spinning his almost total rebuke by voters in 2010 as some kind of victory, the foreign media see things more clearly:
“Barack Obama was the biggest loser of 2010. He allowed the angry Tea Party movement to grow powerful, he did not pass any decent laws despite his majority in Congress and he was aloof, elitist and indecisive. He had to accept a formidable, yet entirely understandable, defeat in the midterm elections as a result. No one expected much from Obama, at least not during the rest of this year.”
“Now, just days before Christmas, Congress has ratified the New START disarmament treaty with Russia. … Will Obama build on this victory? Is it Obama’s breakthrough as a president? Will it mark his comeback as a reformer? … Is a new era of cooperation beginning?”
“The opposite is much more probable, namely that the disarmament treaty will be Obama’s last significant achievement for a long time.”
