One of Obama's MANY problems with the manner in which he acts is that he likes to keep his hand in every aspect of policy. In other words, he micromanages. This is ok if he knows what the fuck he is doing on a particular area. However, if a president has little or no experience in foreign policy, then he needs to largely defer to the judgment of the foreign service professionals in the State Department as well as to intelligence officers and military leaders when establishing foreign policy. The president can certainly craft policy to fit a particular agenda (one that hopefully furthers our national interests). But on the substance he needs to defer a bit, as foreign relations is a discipline that requires you to take into account the historical and contemporary motivations and interests of those international states with which you deal. If an individual serving as president has no background in this discipline, then he cannot effectively micromanage it.
Obama has absolutely no background in foreign policy. Yet, he thinks that he can construct a foreign policy on his own. It is well known that the foreign service professionals at the State Department have been in an uproar many times over Obama's choices of action. He has fucked up relations with other nations numerous times since taking office. Obama's foreign policy appears to consist of an ad hoc reactionary clusterfuck of confused interests cobbled together in haste to deal with any particular international issue. This is not they to lead the most powerful nation in the world. It is an embarrassment.
Fortunately, despite all of the damage Obama has done as a result of his bumbling, most world leaders understand how our system works and, therefore, know that change is coming. They may be able to push around Obama and take advantage of his ignorance and narcissism - and they do- but they also know that they may not be as lucky with his successor.
A community organizer with a law degree may be able to fool some negroes on a street corner in Chicago, but he is out of his element on the international stage.
