JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama has gone abroad and gourd an ox, according to an AP analysis that examines how the president's challenging the deeply held belief that the United States doesn't make mistakes when it comes to dealing with other nations. In three months in office, Mr. Obama has been very vocal to our friends and foes about where the U.S. has gone wrong. The list includes admitting to Europe that the America deserves at least part of the blame for the global financial crisis; telling Russia he wants to reset relations that deteriorated the Cold War levels under President Bush; asking NATO for more troops for Afghanistan, and then not throwing a tantrum when he didn't get much help; lifting restrictions on Cuban-Americans traveling home and sending money to relatives; saying that America's hunger for illegal drugs and poor control of the borders over guns and money flowing into Mexico are partly to blame for the drug cartel violence south of the border; and shaking hands and accepting a book from the anti-American dictator, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The AP compares President Obama's rather hard-core efforts to change America's image abroad to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who pretty much scrambled nonstop to break the communist empire's image before it literally ran itself into the ground. President Obama says he's committed to telling the world that the U.S. is a powerful and wealthy nation, but just one among many that needs to respect other cultures and perspectives. Critics worry the new president might be making the U.S. vulnerable by so readily admitting mistakes and being so willing to talk to our foes and opponents.
So here's the question: When it comes to dealing with foreign countries, is President Obama moving too fast?
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