The president is in Lisbon, Portugal, for the upcoming NATO summit, but unfortunately for the U.S. he arrives weakened from the mid-term election and foreign policy setbacks.
The president's visit to Europe is coming off of a disastrous Asian trip where he failed to secure a free-trade agreement with South Korea, and now is struggling for Senate ratification of an arms-control treaty with Russia. On his Asian trip, the president found foreign leaders skeptical of his free trade polices, and ran into a firestorm over U.S. monetary policies with Asian and European leaders.
"He assumed that because he was liked so clearly and overwhelmingly that he could merely assert what he wanted to achieve and people would follow," said Simon Serfaty, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Clearly enough, the world that he imagined proved to be different than the world as it is."
The NATO summit comes at a difficult time for the president, as our NATO allies are growing concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, and are beginning to signal they are going to begin pulling troops out of that country.
How the president handles the many foreign policy challenges will test his skills as a leader, or could cement his legacy as being overwhelmed and ineffective in the job as president.
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