Teddy Roosevelt famously said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far." If there is any United States president who has followed this advice better than Barack Obama, I don't know who it is. The "big stick" part of the quote is clear. The US has consistently spent more on the military under Obama than Bush Jr. (see here). Notwithstanding the ending and winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no credible reason to think Obama is any threat to continued American military dominance. Perhaps he wields the "stick" less indiscriminately (though there are serious questions to be asked about his controversial drone program), but the stick is, if anything, bigger than ever.
If this changes in Obama's second term (should he get one), it will be because of the so-called sequestration cuts, which (see previous post) are not Obama's fault. In any case, it is inconceivable that the election of either of the presidential candidates will result in anything but a continuation of the overwhelming military superiority of the United States. Whether that is a good thing or not is another question.
If I am reading the tea leaves of the right wing's (and Romney's) common complaint about Obama's supposed "apologizing for America," it is the speaking softly part of Roosevelt's philosophy, which Obama clearly follows better than the braggadocio Bush, that they really object to. As if being diplomatic is a bad thing! As if it is not a very effective tool in the arsenal of a world power (=empire). Clearly, under such conditions a substantive political debate about foreign policy is impossible.
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