One student interviewed after an Obama town hall meeting during his first presidential trip to Europe said ecstatically, "He sounds like a European." Indeed he does."

Of course, I have commented at length on the problem represented by President Obama in numerous other posts.  Bolton essentially recapitulates the core line of argument.  I do think President Obama believes America to be like every other nation which makes his views in many ways inescapable.  If there is nothing particularly great about America and it just happened to stumble into its present position of global power (or worse malevolently established its position), then there is not really a good reason not to rein it back in to what would be acceptable to other nations.

I freely admit that America is not sinless.  Indeed it does have blood on its hands over any number of issues.  However, America is a unique country as it is the exemplar of a universal political creed.  Anyone can be "American" if they choose to be such.  This is not so in China, India, Japan, or any European nation (just ask their immigrant communities).

This is exceptional and makes America a beacon to many.  President Obama's universalism, by contrast, equivocates and seeks to become submerged in some globalized stew without mandating assimilation, which is the key to a successful universality.  That is a recipe for disaster.

Additionally, his views on negotiation may appear enlightened in contrast to the "cowboy" that preceded him, but when our enemies stand strong, will President Obama retain the stiffness of spine to counter that, even if it gets him criticized by a formerly adulatory media? 

Will President Obama recognize American interests and realize them to be the key to true universality, or will he play the European game of espousing universality yet coming up perpetually short?