Decisions made in the White House can have a significant impact in other nations so an argument could be made that the choice of the leader of the free world should be open to citizens well beyond the borders of the United States.  That isn’t going to happen, of course, but opinion polls published by the BBC two years ago did show that Barack Obama had the overwhelming support of non-Americans.  In so far as such a theory has any merit, it could therefore be argued that Barack Obama governs with broad global consent.  The Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda was so full of hope that in 2009 it even renamed Boggy Peak, its highest elevation, Mount Obama. 

Whatever happened to global Republican branding...?

Fast forward to today and G20 nations are concerned about the impact on their economies of Barack Obama’s weak dollar policies.  As well they might, since the monetary easing will stifle growth outside of America by making their exports more expensive and therefore less viable.  Add to this the generally lower consumer spending resulting from U.S. stagnation and the cards are stacked firmly against businesses based in Europe, South America, China and everywhere else.   

Worse, commodity prices are generally traded in dollars, which means they are heading skywards too.  When your gasoline – or petrol – prices go up, thank the Democratic Congress and Barack Obama for their failed so-called stimulus spending, which created record debt in the United States.  Basic food prices will also be increasing, making a nonsense of Democrat rhetoric about alleviating global poverty in Africa and elsewhere.  It is precisely their recklessness that will be helping create it. 

Investment in Asian countries like China and Japan that hold U.S. debt will also be under pressure as these countries see the value of their assets diminish with inflation. 

American conservatives, by contrast, support a strong dollar and economic policies that are focused on generating growth.  Tea-party favorite Sarah Palin, though maligned by liberal journalists everywhere, has been eloquent in her opposition to the monetary easing that will cause so much international instability and hardship.  In a letter published in today’s Wall Street Journal, she points out that the way to restore confidence and certainty is to promote free market principles, and warns against, “a Keynesian utopia, a mythical land in which endless government spending is an amazingly effective job creator and investors’ confidence in U.S. Treasury bonds somehow increases as we sink ever deeper into debt while the Fed has its printing presses working overtime.” 

Despite all this, we are not likely to see a Mount Palin in economically-compromised Antigua any more than we can expect to see broad international public support for the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, whoever he or she may be.  The damage inflicted by liberalism, it seems, does not necessarily translate into public repudiation.  Perhaps this has something to do with the political prejudices of global messengers who, it also happens, display enthusiasm for measuring supposed international perceptions about the United States and its leaders, and making them widely known.

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