Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

April 4, 2012 By Fausta

Monday’s North American summit: Just how bad was it?

The North American summit that the US media ignored was a disaster that the foreign media reported: IBD explains how Obama Alienates Canada And Mexico At Three Amigos

Obama’s neglect of our nearest neighbors and biggest trade partners has created deteriorating relations, a sign of a president who’s out of touch with reality. Problems are emerging that aren’t being reported.

Fortunately, the Canadian and Mexican press told the real story.
…
Energy has become a searing rift between the U.S. and Canada and threatens to leave the U.S. without its top energy supplier.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Obama the U.S. will have to pay market prices for its Canadian oil after Obama’s de facto veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada is preparing to sell its oil to China.

Until now, NAFTA had shielded the U.S. from having to pay global prices for Canadian oil. That’s about to change.

Canada has also all but gone public about something trade watchers have known for a long time: that the U.S. has blocked Canada’s entry to the eight-way free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an alliance of the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, Chile, and Singapore. Both Canada and Mexico want to join and would benefit immensely.

With the media’s “layers of fact-checkers,”

U.S. media dutifully reported Obama’s false claim that Canada, our top trading partner, is too protectionist

But the Canadians know the truth,

Canada’s take was far more blunt: “Our strong sense is that most of the members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would like to see Canada join,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in essence revealing that it’s the Obama administration alone that is blocking Canada, and suggesting that payback on energy was coming.
…
Things were even worse, if you read the Mexican press accounts of the meeting.

Excelsior of Mexico City reported that President Felipe Calderon bitterly brought up Operation Fast and Furious, a U.S. government operation that permitted Mexican drug cartels to smuggle thousands of weapons into drug-war-torn Mexico. This blunder has wrought mayhem on Mexico and cost thousands of lives.

The mainstream U.S. press has kept those questions out of the official press conferences, while Obama has feigned ignorance to the Mexicans and hasn’t even apologized.

In short, the summit was a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. and its relations with its neighbors north and south.

It should have been the easiest, most no-brainer diplomatic task Obama faces.

Go read the whole thing, while at the same time keep in mind that Obama diverted the press conference into the issue of Obamacare and the SCOTUS.

And he got his Constitution facts wrong.

UPDATE,
Linked by Moe Lane, and Instapundit. Thank you!
Linked by HACER. Thank you!

And now,
Canadian PM Harper: The Price The US Pays For Canadian Oil Is About To Go Up, Up, Up, Thanks To President Ladies’ Tee. AFTER KEYSTONE, WE’D RATHER SELL OIL TO CHINA (h/t Instapundit)

“Smart diplomacy”, folks, “smart diplomacy”…


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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Canada, Mexico Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Felipe Calderón, Keystone Pipeline, smart diplomacy, Stephen Harper, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership

Comments

  1. jlh says

    April 4, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    It’s a demonstration of “What are friends for.” As Israel too has learned.

    Hey, I’ve got your back. And I know nothing about the knife that’s sticking out of it!
    Now, smile for the camera.

  2. jlh says

    April 4, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    It;s a demonstration of “What are friends for?” As Israel too has learned.

    Hey, I’ve got your back. And I know nothing about the knife that’s sticking out of it. Now, smile for the camera.

  3. James Kliegel says

    April 4, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    But . . . but . . . but both Canada *and* Mexico punch above their weight! Isn’t that enough?

  4. Ed says

    April 4, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    Hey. Even from up here in the Great White North we can see the poor fellow drowning. Harper’s a very, very good politician, and he’s just skating circles around Obama. I’m not sure O even realizes this. Obama’s in so far over his head that it’s actually becoming embarrassing to watch.

  5. Southern Man says

    April 4, 2012 at 2:51 pm

    The damage done by this administration will take a decade or more to repair. But it will all be Bush’s fault.

  6. GMO says

    April 4, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Canada’s dairy industry is the sticking point with the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 200% to 300% tariffs on imported dairy – I’m sure the US would like access to that market. Canada’s willing to remove trade barriers on just about everything else, but dairy is a sacred cow (ha ha).

  7. RS says

    April 4, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Perhaps if Canada changed their national anthem from Oh Canada to Oh Bama, then the one would take them seriously.

  8. Brian says

    April 4, 2012 at 2:56 pm

    To be fair, Barry is in a position he was never qualified to occupy. The stupidity of American voters is to blame, not our incompetent president.

  9. HopeForChange says

    April 4, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Come November, President Obama is not only going to lose, he’s going to lose in stunning, epic fashion. There is a simmering, seething and utterly determined tide of citizenry in the US that cannot wait to thank Mr. Obama for his service and send him on his way. We will arrive at the polling places in force and undeterred; no matter what ridiculous and desperate attempts at distraction or intimidation are employed. Pay no attention to the vocal apologist liberal media standing in front of the curtain wildly waving their arms. They’re about to lear a new word: repudiation!

  10. Steve in SoCal says

    April 4, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    My apology to our friends north & south for this dip of a president. Yes, Obama does NOT know Harper is skating around him. How could he? Obama focused only on looking at himself, not anything around.

    Secondly, the press conference turned to the SCOTUS and such, because no one is talking about gas prices. They will go up before they come down to any appreciable degree. So what can Obama do? If the public focuses on gas prices as they rise and Obama must defend his energy policy, that’s bad news for the pres. If he can keep it off the front page, people will get used to the cost, grumble a bit and then in Sept-Oct he hopes prices come down and he can say my energy policies are now in place and working and except for the little bit of bump by speculators, everything is peachy. He most certainly doesn’t want to talk about energy prices for the next 6 months.

  11. Milpundit says

    April 4, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    So foreign policy is not Obama’s strong suit.

    I know, lets have a spelling contest.

  12. Fausta says

    April 4, 2012 at 4:20 pm

    Here’s the YouTube of strongest allies punching above their weight,

  13. Jim says

    April 4, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    >>The stupidity of American voters is to blame

    Actually, it was our narcissism. We just felt so very good, so very proud of ourselves for voting for the black guy. I guess there were 47% of us who saw that he was an inexperienced empty suit spawned from the Chicago Machine.

  14. Harvard@Cal says

    April 4, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Oh Milpundit, it would look like this:

    Pronouncer: Mr. Obama, the work is “corpsman”.

    Mr. Obama: That’s so easy, K-O-R-M-A-N, Korman.

    Pronouncer: I’m sorry, that is incorrect. It is C-O-R-P-S-M-A-N.

    Mr. Obama: No fair, you pronounced “corpseman” wrong!I want a recount! I’ll have you audited! Did Bush put you up to this? I know what a corpseman is, I watch “The Walking Dead”!

  15. RebeccaH says

    April 4, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    Barack Obama is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the American people. The whole world is laughing at him… and us, for electing him. Worse, they’re pushing him around like the weakling kid on the schoolyard, and he’s scratching his head wondering why people aren’t nicer to him.

  16. richard40 says

    April 4, 2012 at 8:25 pm

    How pathetic that we have a prez that cant even manage decent relations with Canada. I mean I can understand having trouble with Iran, Russia, and China, but CANADA???

  17. Fausta says

    April 4, 2012 at 9:04 pm

    Speaking of China, http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/140191/

  18. A. Reasoner says

    April 4, 2012 at 11:27 pm

    An Army of Media Davids can bring down this Presidency, and the entire clown parade of czars.

    Sticky notes and Sharpies, baby!

    My current sticky I leave at gas pumps:
    “Under my plan, energy prices will necessarily skyrocket!” Obama campaigning in Oct. 2008

    Gas = $1.61/gallon U.S. average when Obama took office in Jan. 2009.
    Gas = $3.97/gallon U.S. average today.

    Thanks, Obama!

  19. Bookdoc says

    April 5, 2012 at 12:02 am

    It looks to me like the world leaders took measure of our President the first couple of years and are now acting on the weakness they all see. With everything going on from the Middle East, Africa, Russia, China, and the Euro crisis looming, we have an unprepared government rookie running the country. I hope we make it to November.

  20. DirtyJobsGuy says

    April 5, 2012 at 10:35 am

    There is an understory in Canada that several US “charitable” foundations were involved in a below the radar plan to cripple Canada’s tar sands oil. Blocking Keystone was part of this. The Canadian Government is now blocking some US NGO’s from raising funds or working in Canada.

    I’m sure the Obama administration was aware of this and may have been part of it. I believe that similar backroom efforts were involved in blocking the US Nuclear Waste Disposal site in Nevada and the CO2 rules coming out of EPA. The coordinated publicity, media and legal efforts of the NGOs must be coordinated with the Obama white house.

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