Obama Campaign Adviser Admits: “Campaigning Trumped Meetings with World Leaders”

Photo via The Hollywood Reporter

There is a very real question of whether or not Obama’s so called “charm offensive” in the entertainment media is going to reap great electoral rewards, this November.

A commenter, here, fretted:

Trouble is going on the View and on Pimp With a Limp will help him.
Romney needs to take that seriously.

I’m not to sure about that. How does the President’s hyper campaign schedule in the face of a world-wide foreign policy crisis look to sober-minded likely voters?

The New York Times of all places, offers you a clue:

As dozens of world leaders gathered for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly — choking Manhattan’s streets with motorcades and barricades — the contrast between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton could not have been starker.

Mr. Obama, his re-election campaign in full swing, continued to make his pitch to American voters, avoiding for the most part world leaders arriving at the United Nations. The president will address the General Assembly on Tuesday but, breaking with tradition, has no meetings set with his counterparts.

***

In between, Mrs. Clinton held an emotional meeting with President Mohamed Magariaf of Libya, who reiterated his apologies for the Sept. 11 killings of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi. He noted the counterprotests, held in Benghazi and other Libyan cities on Friday, that expressed support for the United States.

“Madam Secretary,” he said, speaking softly in a conference room at the American suite in the Waldorf-Astoria, “I also seize this opportunity to reaffirm that what happened on 11th of September towards these U.S. citizens does not express in any way the conscience of the Libyan people, their aspirations, their hopes or their sentiments towards the American people.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama was filming a segment for “The View,” the talk show hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and a quartet of sharp-tongued television celebrities. Mr. Obama arrived on the set with a basket of gifts, including home-brewed White House beer for the co-host Barbara Walters, whose birthday is Tuesday.

With his wife, Michelle Obama, by his side, the president was quipping with the six women in no time: “I told folks I’m just supposed to be eye candy here for you guys.”

Blam!

Here’s the money quote from the article:

…a campaign adviser acknowledged privately that in this election year, campaigning trumped meetings with world leaders. “Look, if he met with one leader, he would have to meet with 10,” the aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

10 is just too many, you see…

Gateway Pundit shares two videos that get to the heart of the problem : Pigs Fly… Both CNN & MSNBC Trash Obama on Foreign Policy Mistakes (Video)

Both videos are excellent – especially the Morning Joe clip where Scarborough very grimly explains why President Eye Candy is such a failure both domestically and on the world stage as Mika listens with a stunned and hurt look on her face.

“He hasn’t tried just like he hasn’t tried like a lot of members on the Hill in both parties,” Scarborough said. “And you hear from both parties and we’ve been hearing, Jon Meacham, for several years that this president will go to a country, give a speech and then leave. And I’ve heard from one diplomat after another it’s as if he thinks the speech itself is the ends. And not a means to the ends, which, of course, is completely opposite of what George H.W. Bush did throughout his entire life.”

Which brings us back to the NY Times piece where we find the White House once again acting like an Obama speech in and of itself, “is the ends –  not a means to the ends”:

White House aides, who have been getting an earful for the past few days about the president’s light schedule, sought to focus attention on Mr. Obama’s speech on Tuesday. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Mr. Obama would address anti-American protests that have been unfolding in the Arab world.

“I would expect the president to address the recent unrest in the Muslim world and the broader context of the democratic transitions of the Arab world,” Mr. Carney said.

Yay, another Obama speech! They’ve always worked so well in the past….

Seriously though – is the “charm offensive” working? You decide.

SEE ALSO:

Keith Koffler, WHD: Bush Held Bilateral Meetings at the UN in 2004:

While campaign needs appear to have prompted President Obama to avoid meeting individually with any world leaders in New York City during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, George W. Bush’s reelection drive did not preclude him from sitting down with several of his foreign counterparts in 2004 to try to hash through international problems.

Bush held at least three bilateral meetings with world leaders in 2004, meeting with the prime ministers of India, Japan and Iraq. Bush even held a press conference with the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, and attended and spoke at the annual luncheon given by the secretary general, which Obama is skipping.

That is how a real President behaves – even during an election year.

Hat tip: Brian B.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Doug Ross, thanks!