Amateur Barack Obama’s Speechifying Causes an International Incident
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Saturday, December 19th at 9:22PM EST
85 Comments
While Americans are fixated on the weekend blizzard and the health care debate, the rest of the world is fixated on the disastrous “climate change” talks in Copenhagen.
More importantly, though world leaders could not agree on much of anything significant, they could all agree on one thing: Obama screwed up a delicate situation and unintentionally sunk the deal.
guardian.co.uk
For a man who is supposed to be a brilliant speaker and skilled diplomat, leaders from London to Beijing are openly blaming Obama for screwing up Copenhagen. About the only thing good anyone can say about his performance is that he left early.
Seriously.
Former British Deputy Prime Minister and current Member of Parliament John Prescott wrote in the Observer, “President Obama’s speech blaming China didn’t help.”
What was that? It appears Obama tried to bully China into accepting Obama’s vision that nation-states are meaningless and every nation should act in the interests of one world.
“For the Chinese, this was our sovereignty and our national interest,” said Xie Zhenhua, head of China’s delegation.
Oops.
Then there was Obama’s “commitment” to help the third world with $10 billion. That made even his friend Hugo Chavez mad. It also made a lot of other third world nations mad.
They wanted much more ... .though the $10B per year is to rise to $30B per yr in a few years.
Obama miscalculated like the amateur he is.
redstate.com
h/t Peter Dierks
China blamed as anger mounts over climate deal• Beijing accused over emissions cuts
• Campaigners say accord 'a disaster'
Jonathan Watts and John Vidal in Copenhagen Robin McKie and Toby Helm
The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009
An outbreak of bitter recrimination has erupted among politicians and delegates following the drawing up of the Copenhagen accord for tackling climate change.
The deal, finally hammered out early yesterday, had been expected to commit countries to deep cuts in carbon emissions. In the end, it fell short of this goal after China fought hard against strong US pressure to submit to a regime of international monitoring.
The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, walked out of the conference at one point, and sent a lowly protocol officer to negotiate with Barack Obama. In the end, a draft agreement put forward by China – and backed by Brazil, India and African nations – commits the world to the broad ambition of preventing global temperatures from rising above 2C. Crucially, however, it does not force any nation to make specific cuts.
"For the Chinese, this was our sovereignty and our national interest," said Xie Zhenhua, head of China's delegation.
Last night, some delegates were openly critical of China for its intransigence. Asked by the Observer who was to blame for blocking the introduction of controlled emissions, the director general of the Swedish environment protection agency, Lars-Erik Liljelund, replied: "China. China doesn't like numbers." At the same time, others have criticised the Americans for pushing China too hard.
"President Obama's speech blaming China didn't help," says John Prescott, writing in today's Observer.
...
guardian.co.uk |
