(February 17, 2009 - Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America)

Calling upon an old presidential trick, “when poll numbers are down-get out of town,” President Obama has fled to Asian for the next eight days.  He will visit Japan, Singapore, China, and South Korea.  On his way there yesterday, he stopped off briefly in Alaska (2 hour layover) and met with troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base. While in the region, he will meet with members of the APEC ( Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit which is composed of 21 pacific Rim nations that collectively make up 50 % of worlds economic output.  The President will also meet with several Asian leaders on his trip as well:  Japanese Prime Minister YukioHatoyama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Medvedev, and Yudhoyono.

The trip has been in the works for months, so it cannot entirely be linked to his declining poll numbers, but it has come at a great time for the president as he has visibly grown tired of answering the Afghanistan questions and politically avoiding the healthcare debate.  His trip also comes at a convenient time as his Attorney General announced today that he will bring the 911 terrorists to trial in New York City.  This President has a remarkable ability to shift blame to those around him and I have no doubt that he will do just that while he is in Asia.  He will undoubtedly return home next week and fully expect questions of why the most heinous terrorists in history are being tried in federal court to have been fully discussed with his administration and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Tags: 911, APEC, asia, Holder, President Obama, summit, tokyo

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:41 am and is filed under FOREIGN AFFAIRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.