Obama Snubs French President; Seeks to Work With Predecessor

French press outlets are reporting on another foreign policy gaffe committed by the Obama Administration. President Obama recently sent a letter to French President Jacques Chirac (French) expressing Obama's desire "work together...to build a safer world." It's a nice sentiment. The only problem is that Chirac has not been president of France for over two years. The current French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is not a fan of Obama's foreign policy plans, especially in regard to Iran, and now is reported to be upset by the president's outreach to his predecessor.

The snub is the third in a string of recent foreign policy missteps by the Administration. In the first, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a symbolic "reset" button, which was meant as a lighthearted ice-breaker from the new Administration to the former foe. But the humor fell flat when Lavrov informed Clinton that the gift was emblazoned with the Russian word for "overcharge," not reset. Next came the disastrous visit by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier this month. British officials were reportedly taken back by the Obama Administration's refusal to adhere to standard protocol, declining a joint press conference, and hastily scheduling a brief Oval Office appearance of the two leaders. That was followed by revelation of the president's embarassingly minimalist gift to Brown, a set of 25 DVDs of classic American films. The DVDs were coded to play only in North America, making them virtually useless to the leader of America's greatest ally. Now, the Obama Administration has apprently angered the president of France.

The Obama Administration may be too preoccupied with handling the economic downturn here at home to pay much attention to foreign policy courtesies. But American administrations are expected to be able to manage multiple tasks at once. Thus far, the White House has been neglecting foreign policy, as the mistakes show, after promising during the campaign to rekindle ties with America's allies abroad. The president would be well advised to spend more of his time tending to relationships with foreign leaders before his Administration's early clumsiness becomes an international liability.