I know that many of us may not see the leader of NATO as a big deal, but I get the impression that in Europe, it does play a large role. So, it seems that President Obama once again played the role of mediator in chief mainly by listening to, rather than railroading potential opponents. I just find it hard to see Bush playing a similar role.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/president-oba-3.html/snip
On the heels of his negotiations at the G-20 economic summit - where he negotiated a way out of a potential logjam spurred by a heated debate between France and China over tax havens - President Obama exercised his negotiating skills once again on this overseas trip, this time at the NATO Summit.
This time the debate was over whether Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen should become the next secretary general of NATO.
Rasmussen enjoyed widespread support among leaders of 27 member states, with one notable exception: Turkey. The Muslim nation objected to Rasmussen's outspoken support of free speech during the 2006 controversy over cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that appeared in Danish newspapers.
But President Obama supported his candidacy, today calling Rasmussen "an outstanding public servant, somebody with an extraordinary reputation, and I have confidence that he's the right man to help lead NATO during a period in which we are moving from a vision first created in the 20th century to a vision that responds to 21st-century challenges."
Friday night at a three-hour working dinner in Baden Baden, Germany, President Obama played an “the lead role” in opening up the discussion about Rasmussen's candidacy, a source who was there -- and is not a member of the Obama administration -- tells ABC News.
/snip
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