President Obama Has Damaged US Foreign Relations Even More Than Republicans Ever Could

President Obama received a lot of premature praise, especially in Europe, where almost everybody was happy that Bush's successor was a democrat. He made many promises, none of those that Europeans were looking forward to were kept. And now this weekend we saw conflicting reports about Obama's knowledge of the spy programs. Bild claimed the US president learned about eavesdropping on Merkel in 2010, while Spiegel reported that he was informed this Summer.

NSA, Merkel's Phone, And Hypocrisy

According to Spiegel, Angela Merkel's private phone "might have been tapped" "for years" by US intelligence. Of course, the Bundesregierung "unequivocally disapproves". When the revelations were still about the German citizens her Minister of the Interior Friedrich called the critics "anti-American", and "naive".