Obama caves to the Chinese

Last month, the Obama Administration diplomatically wounded Britain, insulted Israel, chided Canada, and furthered the contempt of France. But while the president is snubbing our allies, he's perfectly content to appease America's rivals and enemies.

Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter, reacting to news that the White House was delaying its report to Congress on whether China is manipulating its currency, told "Fox News Sunday" he's concerned the administration could be missing a chance to help U.S. workers get on a level playing field.

The report was originally scheduled for release by April 15, around the time Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting Washington for nuclear talks.

"I'm not too happy about a delay," Specter said. "We have a real problem with the Chinese. They are very shrewd and customarily they outmaneuver us. They take our jobs. They take our money and then they lend it back to us and own a big part of America. So let's watch exactly ... what's happening."

Arlen Specter owes his entire political career as a Democrat to Obama and is one of the White House's most dependable allies. If he's making this criticism, then the game is up. Many are speculating that Obama's suck-up is in order to bring China onboard for sanctions against Iran. If that's true, it's the first serious effort Obama has made against the Iranians. Last year, the president almost immediately recognized Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as that nation's president, despite the sham election and the political violence that followed.

The delay is a remarkable turn-of-face from early last year, when the Obama Administration courageously called out the Chinese on currency manipulation. Tim Geithner unequivocally said during his confirmation hearing, "President Obama - backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists - believes that China is manipulating its currency." Now the president may be willing to cover all that up rather than act unilaterally against Iran.

Hillary insults Canada over abortion

If the biggest story of March is health care reform, the second biggest is how the Obama Administration has taken a wrecking ball to diplomatic relations with our allies. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton knocked Canada by demanding that they invite several other countries and "indigenous peoples" to a conference of Arctic nations. This is despite the fact that Canada was hosting the conference. It's also despite the fact that Canadian troops are fighting and dying in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today she took the snub to a whole new level.

At issue is the decision by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is promoting better maternal mortality as its signature initiative at the upcoming G8 summit Canada is hosting in June.

Harper was initially reluctant to include contraception in the centerpiece plan Canada is advocating, but he has ruled out including abortion.

That met with opposition from Clinton, a longtime abortion advocate and the top international official in the administration of pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

"You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health," Clinton said at a Tuesday news conference. "And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion."

The Toronto Star described the incident as "a grenade in the lap of her shell-shocked Canadian hosts." It's certainly rare for America to be more progressive on the abortion issue than other western powers. For an American secretary of state to lecture other nations on the need to provide abortions is almost unheard of. It's also diplomatically insulting. Harper may very well agree with Clinton; under his leadership in 2005, Canadian Conservatives dropped opposition to abortion from their party platform. He's likely putting abortion off-limits so as to not offend the sensibilities of others, something Hillary Clinton apparently doesn't understand.

Notice that Clinton said that abortion should be "legal" and "safe". Bill Clinton famously said that abortion in America should be "safe, legal, and rare." His wife tellingly left out the "rare" part. Then again this is the same Hillary Clinton who gave a speech commemorating the founding of the UN Population Fund, which has been accused of aiding and abetting forced abortions in China.

The Obama Administration has already outraged Britain and Israel this month. Looks like we can add Canada to the list too.

Canada's turn for a snub

Already this month, the Obama Administration has dealt stunning diplomatic blows to Britain and Israel, two of America's closest allies. Now it's Canada's turn, as Hillary Clinton used a diplomatic conference of Arctic nations to bash our neighbor to the north.

It was supposed to be a meeting of polar pals. But a high-level session on the vast opportunities opening up in the Arctic got off to a chilly start Monday, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Canada for leaving several players off the guest list.

The Canadian government invited foreign ministers from the other four countries with Arctic coastlines -- Russia, Norway, Denmark and the United States -- to hold talks on developing the region, which is being transformed by climate change.

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Clinton noted that the three other nations in the Arctic region -- Sweden, Finland and Iceland -- had complained they were not included in the meeting. She said she also was contacted by representatives of indigenous groups in the area that had been left off the list.

"Significant international discussions on Arctic issues should include those who have legitimate interests in the region," Clinton said, according to a prepared copy of her remarks to the meeting, which was closed to press. "And I hope the Arctic will always showcase our ability to work together, not create new divisions."

Canada's foreign minister, Lawrence Cannon, said it made sense for the Arctic coastal states to meet because of their special responsibilities in areas like search-and-rescue. He said the smaller group was not aimed at supplanting the larger Arctic Council.

Presumably, Canada's foreign minister would know more about Arctic issues than Hillary Clinton, who is only responsible for the state of Alaska. Canadian troops are fighting and dying in both Afghanistan and Pakistan in America's war on terror. But Hillary is willing to publicly snub them because the Swedes and the Inuits had been left off the invite list.

Obama already outraged the Canadians last year when he left Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper off a short list of world leaders he'd personally brief about his new strategy for Afghanistan. Now comes Hillary's snub. Meanwhile we're patiently negotiating with North Korea and Iran, supporting Marxist coups in Honduras, and promoting a Diversity Czar who writes glowingly about Venezuela.

Relations with America's two strongest allies in shambles

Barack Obama campaigned for president promising to "restore our standing in the world" after eight years of the war on terrorism under George W. Bush. Two years later, the fighting is still raging in Iraq and Afghanistan. But worst of all, Obama has continually snubbed Britain and Israel, our strongest allies in the world. Last week, Joe Biden scolded the Israeli government after they announced the construction of apartments in a contested area of East Jerusalem while he was there. Today Obama made the situation much worse.

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Benjamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Obama walked out of his meeting with Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a U.S. congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.

In the ultra-sensitive world of diplomatic relations, this is an absolute cataclysm. It will affect American-Israeli relations for a long time. Prior to Obama's presidency, Israel and America viewed themselves as natural partners in a fight against a common enemy. George W. Bush supported a Palestinian state and occasionally clashed with the Israelis, but never so arrogantly as this.

It also sheds some light onto why Rahm Emanuel has been dropping lines he might leave the administration. Rahm fought for the Israeli army and is widely known to be a firm supporter of Israel. He must be hopping mad over Obama's deplorable treatment of Israeli diplomats.

America's other closest ally is Great Britain, a country for which Obama has shown disdain from day one. The president insulted the British Prime Minister by giving him a collection of American DVDs, sent back a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office, and sent Hillary Clinton to Argentina to support diplomacy over the Falkland Islands, among many other offenses. The Brits are atwitter over their "special relationship" with America being over.

Obama is a product of the same radical thinking that haunted the 1960s and produced men like Bill Ayers. Through this lens, western white nations like American and the U.K. are the true practitioners of evil in the world. True virtue lies in third-world peoples of color. This is why Obama gave a speech in Cairo sucking up to the Muslim world. It's why he stood alone among western nations in supporting a Marxist coup in Honduras. If this thinking persists, it could harm our diplomacy for a long time.

Yet ANOTHER blow to our relations with Great Britain

Another day, another diplomatic blow to our strongest ally.

Hillary Clinton was in Argentina on Monday where she continued her proud tradition of botched diplomacy. Asked by reporters about the Falkland Islands, an archipelago off the coast of South America controlled by Great Britain, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said that Argentina and the UK should negotiate. Hillary, standing next to De Kirchner, heartily agreed. Twice.

The Falkland Islands are a bit of a touchy subject with our friends the Brits. Argentina invaded the Falklands back in 1982, which was quickly repelled by Margaret Thatcher. Since then, the issue has been considered closed. The islands are a self-governing territory of the United Kingdom. The British have said they will reconsider their ownership of the Falklands, but only if the natives themselves want total independence. For their part, the Falkland Islanders seem to like their relationship with a major European power.

Argentina has been after the Falklands since 1833 and the U.S. has never offered them any support -- until now. Once again, the British press was outraged. CNS News has the roundup.

Even before Clinton’s comments, the Daily Express published an editorial on the issue under the title, “U.S. Forgets its Best Friend.”

After the comments, the tabloid criticism intensified. “With friends like these: Hillary Clinton wades into the Falklands row ... and backs the Argentinians,” said the Daily Mail.

The Times headlined its more sober coverage, “Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over Falklands.”

Writing on a Daily Telegraph Web site, Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, said Clinton knew exactly what she was doing when she spoke.

“She is giving her full support for the official stance of Buenos Aires, despite the fact that Great Britain has made it clear that the sovereignty of the Falklands is non-negotiable.”

Gardiner called Clinton’s comments “an astonishing betrayal of the United Kingdom by her closest ally, and yet another slap in the face for Britain from the Obama administration.”

Obama has no problem shaking hands with Venezuelan tyrant Hugo Chavez or throwing his weight behind a Marxist despot in Honduras. His secretary of state is perfectly comfortable sidling up to the Argentines. But our greatest and most trusted European ally in the world must be scorned constantly. Sometimes we here at Obama Watch News wake up wondering how this administration could foul up any worse. Restoring our diplomatic relations with Britain to their standing in 1833 answers that question pretty well.