Doug Schoen's Perspective: Is the White House trying to insulate the president from the unfolding drama in China?
Of course it is.
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Police remove elderly petitioners on Monday outside the Chaoyang Hospital where blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is being held, in Beijing.
(Getty Images) |
The uneasy compromise reached on Friday over Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng’s request for asylum in the U.S. presents a serious political vulnerability for the president who has used his foreign affairs record as a prime argument in his re-election bid.
Meanwhile the White House has gone to great lengths to insulate the president from the unfolding drama in China, and Obama's reticence on the matter speaks volumes.
His failure to comment on Chen Guangcheng is a political judgment designed to try to stem any erosion in his political position from a foreign policy snafu that casts a shadow over what had been a week-long foreign-policy victory lap by the Obama administration — from the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s killing to the president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan.
Indeed, it could not have come at a more inopportune moment for the president – threatening to undo much of the goodwill that the White House has enjoyed from what was justifiably a big success with the one-year anniversary of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Douglas E. Schoen is a political strategist, Fox News contributor, and author of several books including the recently released, "Hopelessly Divided: The New Crisis in American Politics and What It Means for 2012 and Beyond" (Rowman and Littlefield). Read more reports from Doug Schoen — Click Here Now.
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