Obama--America's first non-transatlantic president?

'America's first Pacific president' - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com: "Trying to reassure allies and rivals, President Barack Obama billed himself Saturday as 'America’s first Pacific president,' promising the nations of Asia 'a new era of engagement with the world based on mutual interests and mutual respect.'"

So, it is finally said. President Obama, born in Hawaii, is the first President that is going to put focus on Asia. We have seen it already. He did not surface at the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin wall. While the US makes money in China, Indonesia and India, the EU have to fight in the stone desert narco state they call AfPak. Almost in Asia as well.

It might just be more historic than most EU citizens may think. I can't help remembering the dismal report that was published by the EU Observer the other month about the fate of EU. There was for example the possibility that an occasional eastern state might become ruled by organized crime. Romania is currently looking in the danger zone. That's correct. All the top guys in the US are now on the Asia portfolio. The talk about the special relationship between the UK and the US shrivelled. This is indeed change.

Actually I don't believe in this new romance. I have said it before. Europe and the US belong together. Japan, China and India each are something very different. However, at the same time as America goes Pacific Europe is fragmenting in the parts delineated during the 18th century in philosophy. The Germans just played along until they were unified. Now they are on their own again. So is France. So is the UK.

The question is if Obama is getting the same response from Asia as he got from the Muslim world? I read somewhere that he wanted to lead. He will probably get the same response as he got from Germany on that one. If I have understood this correctly, no one wants to be led by the US.

I saw this coming but I'm still disappointed. I hoped for a transatlantic focus on essentials. We could have taken it to the next level.