It's safe to assume as a result of our financial crisis and the debt held by other nations we are not in a position of great strength. We are no longer the consumer society. The buying power of the middle class which has sustained the world's economy over the years no longer exists to the degree it once did.
We, the people, have bailed out the banks to the tune of trillions of dollars, executive compensation and bonuses have barely taken a hit. However, little serious attention has been paid to the jobs issue and the banks have made no effort to pay the consumer back for their generosity.
A major debate on health care and the appearance is the President did not lead the debate. He did not confront those who were impediments. In a meeting with the Senate caucus he did not speak out against the Stupak language or the public option. Was this noticed outside of the blogs? Were other world leaders watching the leadership of the President?
During the course of the heated debate over health care I did notice few paid attention the the Copenhagen meeting on climate change. There was some, but little attention to the meeting held in DC between Obama and the CEOs of the major banks in this country. The meeting focusing creating jobs and how the banks might make an honest contribution to the needs of the American people.
I notice two things that happened. One, in Copenhagen there was a "secret" meeting taking place between the Chinese, Brazil, India and South Africa. When Obama made efforts to meet with the leaders of mentioned Countries to salvage a deal before leaving Copenhagen he was told, given many excuses (lies?) as to why the leaders were not available to him.
Two, three bank executives--Lloyd Blankfein, John Mack, and Dick Parsons --did not show up in person to meet with the President and had to join by conference call. Their excuse was bad weather (fog) in DC meant that they were unable to fly in; Mack was quoted as saying, regarding their absence, "It’s certainly not for a lack of effort."
Simon Johnson in the New Republic has an interesting piece on how hard the must have tried.
But really there are three possible interpretations:
(1) Pure bad luck. This happens to us all; even the best laid plans are for nought sometimes.
(2) Bad management by the executives and their logistic teams--who are ordinarily the best of the best.
(3) Wilful defiance of the government which, while not premeditated in this instance, means that the executives grabbed an opportunity to show disrespect and relative power.
We don’t know all the facts of how these executives planned to travel or exactly their routes on Monday morning--and I would be happy to be corrected on any details--but here’s what we can readily construct from the public record. (We do know they didn’t try to come down Sunday evening, because that would have worked.)
It leads to headlines such as these:
Are Bank Executives Really Stuck in the Fog?
Bankers remember to take commercial planes to meet with Obama, but forget to check the weather
And then there is this:
Late in the afternoon on Friday, with the clock ticking down to zero, a rather dramatic scene unfolded that surprised even several top leaders at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen. In a secret meeting between Chinese, Indian, and Brazilian heads of state, the door swung open revealing President Obama, who hadn’t been invited but had arrived to crash the meeting. Several diplomats protested the intrusion, but Obama simply informed them he wouldn’t accept them negotiating in secret. He sat down and started talking.
From reporting it seems obama's staff had made attempts for last minute meeting with each of the leaders, but they were rebuffed with a variety of excuses (on the tarmac and leaving town) and/or lies as to why last minute meetings were not possible.
It was also reported:
The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country's foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world's most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his "superiors".
Was it Obama or the office of POTUS?
The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame.
How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room
Politico's Glenn Thrush reported:
A senior administration official, briefing reporters aboard Air Force One en route Andrews Air Force Base: "[T]he President said to staff, I don't want to mess around with this anymore, I want to just talk with Premier Wen. ... Our advance team called their advance team to try to set this meeting up, and in all honesty make one more chance, make one more run at getting something done.
The Chinese say they need to call our advance guys back. So it's clear that it's going to take some time to get this Wen meeting done. ... The Chinese then call and say, can we move our 6:15 p.m. bilateral back to 7:00 p.m. And we said -- we put them on hold, talked a little bit, the President walked up, the President said, move it to 7:00 p.m., I'm going back to the multilateral. ... [A] couple of us start to walk up to the room where the multilat is because we had sent advance to look at the room, the room where we were going to have the China bilat and realize the room is occupied by what we think are the Chinese and we can't get into the room to look at it.
So they come back and it sort of got our antennae up a little bit. So by the time several of us, including Denis McDonough and I, got into the multilateral room we've now figured out why we can't get into that room: because that room has Wen, Lula, Singh and Zuma. They're all having a meeting. ..
Copenhagen Connection: Day 13
Steve Clemons sees Obama's skills salvaging something from Copenhagen and the circumstance:
President Obama demonstrated his work-the-situation prowess in Copenhagen in which he molded a meeting planned with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who may have been trying to duck Obama, into a five way chat between the leaders of China, Brazil, India, South Africa and the United States.
When Obama is on, he really is on. Obama biographer Richard Wolffe hammered home Obama's approach to challenges as basketball games and how he sees situations like the one he confronted in the quickly deteriorating Copenhagen scene.
I wish there were more situations -- Israel/Palestine comes to mind -- where he was able to get his game on, and move others to get to "yes" more frequently.
I realize that there are a lot of doubts lingering about the details and substance of the Copenhagen agreement, but what Obama achieved there in the last hours of the Summit is impressive.
Obama on the Court in Copenhagen
But, my question is were the Bankers, the Chinese, the Brazilians, the South Africans and the Indians insulting, snubbing the President Barack Obama or the office of the President of the United States?
This has been nagging me as much if not more than the debate on health care as it will impact all future acts by this President domestically and Internationally.
Comments from those far more informed than me will be appreciated... a discussion of the question raised. My curiosity is piqued.