Politics As Usual? Barack Obama’s November 2010 Asia Tour

I’m trying out something new here. Basically I’m taking some important political stories – this one in particular with a global focus – and breaking them down in more layman’s terms. For this post, I’m detailing the current foreign exploits of the man I’m definitely a fan of, Barack Obama. This is perfect timing considering he goes to Seoul, South Korea today for the G20, the third stop on his November 2010 tour through Asia. So again, this is my opinion, there are no claims to be balanced, this is my personal take on it. However, I do have a minor in Sociology, have seen the site of a developing economy firsthand in South Africa, and took a course with one of the creators of the G20—so I feel a bit qualified to speak my views. Hope you enjoy the experiment, and feel free to debate me in comment form (or just say something if you enjoyed it).

So on the second stop of this tour of Asia, President Obama attempts to continue operation-repair-relations-with-the-Muslim-World in Indonesia (which has the world’s largest population of Muslims). This included visits to mosques, talk about respecting Indonesia’s diversity, and Obama playing up the fact he lived in Indonesia for four years in his youth. In his speech at the University of Indonesia, he touched on America’s support of Islam (aka: we’re not at war with Islam), desire for continued partnership with Indonesia, while rallying against Al-Queda and seeking support from the Muslim nations in this cause. This is important because polls conducted amongst Muslims abroad show Obama has slipped in favor since his 2009 speech in Cairo. It was generally smooth sailing in Indonesia, besides a small controversy over a handshake Michelle Obama gave. He even beat the volcanic ash clouds from the eruption of Mount Merapi, that would have delayed his flight leaving Indonesia. Smooth dude.