The Rest of the World Begins to Realize that Obama is a Crock of Poop

The air is already coming out of the balloon. And we're stuck with him for 4 years.

Barack Obama got a global standing ovation long before he was elected president. But in a fickle and fast-moving world, the overseas reviews are already turning mixed.

A deepening global recession, new hostilities in the Middle East, complications in closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan — an impatient world has a stake in all of them and is asking how much change Obama can deliver.

That's the problem, said Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington: People everywhere simply expect too much, practically ensuring Obama will disappoint.

"The United States can't solve all the world's problems," he said in an interview. "It doesn't have enough money or military power. And the president is constrained by Congress and the constitution. The founding fathers wanted to stop someone from being like a monarch."

Dozens of developing countries rely on U.S. foreign aid, which historically has been generous. But an administration preoccupied with keeping Americans from losing their homes and jobs may have to cut back on foreign assistance.

Even items on Obama's agenda that initially seemed straightforward are turning out to be fraught with complications, such as closing Guantanamo in eastern Cuba. Obama has hinted that it may be his first executive order — but experts say it could take a year to accomplish.

"There are all sorts of logistical questions," Dale said. "What if they suddenly captured Osama bin Laden? Where would they put him? It's very easy for people abroad to take these issues as symbols of what they think is wrong with America. They need to understand the Americans don't like these things any more than they do."

That hasn't stopped harsh U.S. critics like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from offering blunt advice.

"I don't want to tell President Obama what to do," Chavez said in a televised address. He did anyway: If Obama wants to free up billions of dollars, Chavez said, he should pull U.S. troops out of Iraq immediately and shrink Washington's military bootprint around the world.

Obama did pledge during the campaign to withdraw all American combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. But he also vowed to shift the focus to Afghanistan — and Obama's Pentagon is likely to find it hard to persuade allies to commit more troops there.

Mexico has tempered its expectations that Obama will bring "transformational change" to the economy or quickly tackle immigration reform. As Agustin Carstens, Mexico's treasury secretary, put it: "At the end of the day, we have to be realistic."

Funny. Chavez did offer Obama advice and judging by reports of Obama's intentions to withdraw from Iraq, it would appear that Obama is taking him up on that advice.