Obama’s humble America

President Obama used his first full day in the arena of heavyweight international diplomacy to reveal an ambitious agenda and a new American humility.

Even as the events in London were marred by violent riots and protocol hiccups, Obama enjoyed a day of meetings with traditional rivals and longtime enemies, the productivity of which surprised even some White House officials.

Aware both of his promise to conduct a more inclusive and humble foreign policy and of European anger over what is seen as lax American regulation, Obama was quick to accept some American blame for the global economic crisis.

{mosads}“I would say that if you look at the sources of this crisis, the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to a regulatory system that was inadequate to the massive changes that had taken place in the global financial system,” the president said before Thursday’s G-20 summit began.

Even as rioters attempted to invade London’s financial institutions, British officials seemed enamored of the new president, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative opposition leader David Cameron singing his praises.

As the White House is quickly learning, however, details of what the first lady was wearing and the Obamas’ gift to the queen are, to the media, seen as equally important as the president’s agreement to renegotiate nuclear arms treaties with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Back in the U.S., Republicans roundly criticized the Obamas’ decision to present Queen Elizabeth II with an iPod after he gave Brown a collection of DVDs during his Washington visit. British press noted she already has one.

Local media also focused on the violence in the city as rioters broke into a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland and tried to do the same at the Bank of England.

One administration official, watching the summit on TV from the White House, said there was no concern among staff that the riots would mar what officials view as a successful first day on the world stage.

Obama received a warm reception from crowds. As his motorcade left 10 Downing St., schoolchildren ran after him, taking pictures.

Substantively, administration officials were thrilled with the common ground Obama has found with Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The president agreed to visit both countries later this year.
Senior administration officials, speaking to reporters on background, made it clear that Obama will keep his vow to end “cowboy diplomacy” and that his methods will differ greatly from those of President Bush.

While Bush met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and said he could see into the former KGB officer’s soul, Obama administration officials played down the importance of a “good rapport” with Medvedev, saying their sit-down was not “to establish some, you know, buddy-buddy relationship.”

The administration officials said they were “struck” by both the agreements and disagreements between the two presidents.

“I was struck by the agreement about threats from countries like North Korea, Iran and extremist elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That, to me, is very significant, that we’re agreeing on these places as threats,” one official said.

“I was also struck by some of the disagreements. They had real disagreements about Georgia — particularly [that] Abkhazia and South Ossetia will never be recognized by the United States. The president said that very forcefully. The president also made clear the idea of a sphere of influence is an idea whose time is long past its due, not a 21st-century idea, and some discussion on that.”

After the meetings with Hu and Medvedev, the White House released lengthy joint statements outlining the areas of agreement and disagreement between the U.S. and Russia and China. The degree of specificity, particularly in the meeting with Medvedev, surprised even officials traveling with the president.

“This is a document of work; this is not a document of principles or flowery language. And I think we have to give President Medvedev credit, too, that this is not an ordinary document from their side,” one official said, adding: “Honestly, I was not optimistic when we started this process of negotiating this that we would get it done for this meeting.”

As for Hu, administration officials said Obama’s approach to the communist country is “marked by pragmatism, by a non-ideological approach,” and the “high points” of the meeting were “that they agreed on a characterization of the relationship as a positive — building a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century.”

While the White House is optimistic about what the president accomplished in his first full day, his biggest tests are likely yet to come as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy continued to dig their heels in the sand in the debate over global regulation versus global stimulus.

The British and U.S. media continued to paint a picture of an impasse on the matter even as Obama and Brown downplayed any such contention.

The president will sit down with three other world leaders on Thursday — those of South Korea, Saudi Arabia and India, all of which present unique but critical challenges to the U.S., particularly on military and national security issues.

Republicans were slow to offer the same praise for the president that many world leaders — especially those in British leadership — heaped upon him.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said Obama should be acting “more like a Ronald Reagan, a champion of greatness of our country and of free enterprise and of what we can do — I think he would get more support and be very popular.”

“Right now, he’s tending to say, ‘The previous administration was bad and I’m less bad,’ and that’s not necessarily what the Germans, the French or the British really want to hear,” Issa told “ABC News Now.”