Chinese Take-Out
To say the least, Obama does not have it “Made in China”.
The current trip of Barack Obama to meet with the leaders of China is a perfect illustration of what happens when a man who depends solely on style over substance meets a culture that is not impressed by his panache.
China is the very archetype of the change Barack Obama spent years promising to America. While the change has occurred over the past few decades, the redefinition of China from a minor trading partner to a burgeoning world super power has been sure and steady. And when you consider the size of the country and population and where they are now versus where they were in 1988 the remarkable transformation has actually occurred at near light speed.
In many ways the Chi-Coms and Obama have a lot in common. The changes made in China were imposed by a dictating party that simply refused to allow anything, including human life, to get in the way of its relentless pursuit of change. It wasn’t that the people of China decided they would rather move off their rural farms and become industrial workers living in congested cities. The government came in and told the masses it was what they wanted. There was no concern for individual rights or freedoms. In China you are free to do what the government tells you to do and have the right to agree with their authority. All dissenters meet with a fate almost as bad as a pissed off Nancy Pelosi.
But while the governing communist party has some admiration for the way Obama has shotgunned his socialist agenda through the Halls of Congress, they are far less impressed with him as it relates to their own interest.
The old Obama duende that served him so well in the United States and Europe has failed to woo the Chinese. While Obama came prepared with a steamer trunk full of well honed phrases and ghost written speeches the Chinese were more interested in getting clarification to the rhetoric. As has been the case for his entire political career, all of Barack Obama’s duplicitous though eloquent parol can be stymied by asking the simple question “What does that mean”, for which of course he has no answer.
Instead of finding a submissive partner Barack Obama is now confronted with a force of will that he has not experienced before. Along with holding sizable stakes in other world markets China enjoys a veritable oligopoly in the world market for US Treasury bonds. They do not view the United States so much as a partner as they do an investment and they don’t like what they are seeing in the way this president and his faithful minions in congress are handling their less than hard earned Yuan.
George Bush used every available resource to avoid instituting tariffs and trade restrictions with China, not because he was unaware of some of their unfair trade practices but because he understood that any trade restrictions would be met with equal countermeasures from China on our products. Manufacturing in the United States was kept afloat in the face of the early economic downturn by the increase in exports into Chinese markets. The complete inexperience of Barack Obama in global trade issues coupled with a world view that was bought and paid for by American labor unions leads this community activist president to be clueless as to the ramifications of his misguided actions. He is getting a crash course in it now by a less than friendly audience.
Obama will spend the next few days in China and he will be treated with all the respect due an American president, but make no mistake about it, the Chinese know a patsy when they see one. It will be interesting to see what happens as the old Obama magic fails to bring the tears of joy and hyperventilation so common in other venues.
Barack Obama could end up looking like Kanye West opening for Larry the Cable Guy at a VFW convention.
You gotta know your crowd.
