Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Influence Dwindles

 Clemens Wergin wrote up a column for N-24/Welt today, and the statement made was....all these expectations with Trump gone, had lead intellectuals to expect a new beginning and less chaos with the Biden team running things.  Well....as Wergin lays out the landscape....there's a massive amount of damage done by the Afghanistan affair.  

Blinken on a Europe tour to reassure folks?  More or less....but the general question is....did a marginal team come in and design this 'disaster' to occur?

For four years, it's safe to say that the 'message' was that Trump was unorganized and too chaotic.  Anybody would be better....was the received message.

What happens now?  I would offer three observations:

1.  Virtually nothing that Blinken says will be taken as factual.  From this point on....anything that Biden or Blinken say.....will be assessed by European leaders and assigned a BS-factor (whether they deserve it or not).

2.  Handling of future events?  I would go and suggest that the moment that anything appears on the horizon....meetings will be detailed and Biden will simply be one of several folks invited, and his opinion won't be that great of a influence on the outcome of the meeting.

3.  Phonechats between the European leaders and Biden will occur much less than normal.  What he says or suggests....won't be trusted to the degree that Obama or Clinton had in nature.

It is an odd path now.....everyone got their desired wish....Trump is gone.  But in reality....it might not mean much at this point.  Some might even go and say you just ended up with Trump version 2.0. 

No comments: