Seriously? Two major superpowers, one of which holds 1/3 of our $18t+ national debt, and it's Obama's job/responsibility to tell them with whom they can conduct their business? He's not the president of the world, he's the president of one country.
For decades, the president of the United States has been referred to as the "leader of the free world". There is a good reason for this. The U.S. holds all the cards. The key to the world economy is held by the U.S. If Wall St. collapses, the entire world will go down with it. (As a side point, the debt we owe China is mutually beneficial. If China called in its debt it would sink them on the same boat.)
A good school teacher is a man or woman who never has to raise his or her voice and never has to lift a finger. The children in the classroom can instantly detect on day one if the teacher is the ruler of the classroom or if he or she can be toyed with.
A powerful president does not have to lift a finger. Not a single bullet need be fired. Foreign leaders merely have to smell that the president of the U.S. means business and that is enough to force them into compliance. Ronald Reagan terrified the Soviets with mere words. Heck, they were even afraid of JFK.
Whether you like Obama or hate Obama, it is clear that he is perceived by foreign leaders as weak. They actually
say it openly.
Or even if you look at it at being too weak, that's the situation, like it or not. If China and Russia were going to unilaterally lift their sanctions anyway, the US was bargaining from a point of no real power.
Unfortunately I cannot argue with this.
That's why you need to present an alternative if you're in a position to possibly reject this deal, as Schumer may be.
In the unlikely event that the deal gets killed in the senate, what is Obama going to do? Is he going to say "you guys screwed me, so now I'm just going to let Iran do whatever they want"?
