Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Paul Brandus - Talk Radio News Service

BEIJING - It’s hard to keep up with President Obama. Whether it’s pressing the “reset” button in Moscow, turning a new page with Muslims in Cairo, or talking books with Hugo Chavez in Trinidad, the new U.S. President has traveled the equivalent of three times around the equator – far more in his first ten months in office than any of his recent predecessors, according to White House travel records.

His latest batch of frequent flyer miles: this week’s 22,000 mile slog through Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. And preparations are already underway for next month’s trip to Oslo, where Obama will pick up his Nobel Peace Prize – and maybe make a side trip to the Copenhagen climate summit – a city he just visited in his failed bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago.

All told, the energetic Mr. Obama has made no less than 7 trips abroad to 19 countries, spending nearly 12% of his time out of the United States. Why?

“With all due respect to the prior administration, it can be argued that a lot of damage was done to America’s reputation abroad,” says a senior U.S. official here in Beijing. “I spent the last few years getting the door slammed in my face…it got harder to get some things done.” The official, who has served in the Middle East as well, detects a shift in the way foreigners perceive the United States and its policies.

That perception is borne out, to a large extent, by a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey released last week, which says citizens along this week’s stop – Japan, China and South Korea – are more comfortable with Barack Obama in the White House than they were with George W. Bush.

Here in China, for example, 62% of respondents say they have “some” or “a lot” of confidence in Obama; last year it stood at 30%. In South Korea, the needle jumped from 30% to 81%, and in Japan from 25% to 85%. The gains among key U.S. allies in Europe are even more dramatic. Last year, 14% of Germans had confidence in Bush. Today, 93% do in Obama. Britain jumped from 16% to 86%, and even the finicky French got on board, with the number surging from 13% to 91%.

In Arab and Muslim countries, the Pew study says the Obama effect has been more muted. In 2008, 7% of Pakistanis had confidence in Bush; 13% now do in Obama. In Egypt, the number stands at 42%, and in the world’s biggest Muslim nation, Indonesia, where Obama spent part of his childhood, the number increased 26 percentage points to 63%. Strong gains for Obama – or simply relief in some quarters now that Mr. Bush has left the stage.

But does this personal approval of Obama translate into political achievement on the world stage? Mr. Obama, thus far, has been unable to move the Middle East peace process along, and Iran shows few signs of backing down from its nuclear program. Mr. Obama, probably goaded by Israel, warned Tehran over the weekend that time is running out. North Korea, meanwhile, tested a second nuclear device in May along with a series of cruise missiles and continues to both tease and taunt the West about negotiations.

On turning back global warming, a key Obama objective, next month’s Copenhagen climate summit will come and go with no substantive, let alone binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions. The most substantive and far-reaching goals have been kicked down the road, and although the House of Representatives has passed legislation, Senate passage of a similar climate/energy bill is far from certain.

In Afghanistan, the war Mr. Obama has called “essential,” he has been unable to persuade allies to send meaningful numbers of reinforcements, thus upping the pressure on him to consider a “surge” of tens of thousands of fresh U.S. troops. Last week, Mr. Obama rejected all four Afghan options presented to him by his advisors; another Situation Room meeting on the issue will be held when the President returns from Asia.

“What’s clear is that while personal appeal - the kind President Obama has in droves – certainly doesn’t hurt, it’s no guarantee that a leader will be able to advance his or her agenda,” says the American official. Still, the world clearly appears more comfortable with this president than the prior one. Mr. Obama can only hope that all the miles, all the jet lag and all the handshakes and photo-ops with foreign leaders has laid the foundation for overseas achievements that thus far, have largely proven elusive.

Paul Brandus filed this report from Beijing