Popular Prez Faces Uphill Battle in Euro Meetings

Obama may be a big hit in Europe, but that doesn’t mean his upcoming foreign trip is going to be easy. Overseas, he’ll be pushing for a new take on Afghanistan, fighting against weapons proliferation, and calling for Europeans to join together to fix the global economy, the Washington Post notes. He’ll get “a rapturous welcome,” but “there are going to be very tense discussions," says an analyst.

White House officials say the summits Obama will attend should help heal some of the international rifts left by the Bush administration and forge unity on issues like the economy and terrorism. But the relatively young and inexperienced new president will have to prove he's not a pushover, and battle perceptions that the United States is responsible for the dismal state of the world economy. Even if leaders want to back the new man in the Oval Office, crises they face at home may make that difficult, says an expert.
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