Obama, world want bold signs from Europe at G-20

CHICAGO (AP) -- With global anxiety rising, President Barack Obama is searching for bolder, swifter signals from Europe that it will contain its financial mess and keep it from torpedoing the U.S. economy and his re-election chances along with it....

By James Kwak Helene Cooper of the New York Times wrote a “news analysis” story saying that the challenge for President Obama is this: “Is he willing to try to administer the disagreeable medicine that could help the economy mend over the long term, even if that means damaging his chances for re-election?” The problem, she goes on to say in the next paragraph, is that the economy is in bad shape:

It was a mess when George W. Bush was first sworn in. There was the wet rain; the protesters jeering him just 39 days after the Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore that Florida was his. Bush promised an era of civility that echoed his Texas years where he was popular and known as bipartisan. Of course, it didn’t turn out that way. Bush’s years were marked by rancor and division, a Senate that flipped party control three times and a vice president who once cursed out a prominent senator with the counsel to “go f—k yourself.”

This election is all over but the final tally. I expect the winner to be announced soon after the West coast voting is closed. The networks would all have you believe the election is a toss-up. For example, the Wall Street Journal just today reports Obama and Romney Deadlocked, Polls Show.

Global stocks rallied for a second day with a strong advance in Europe and Asia on Tuesday on signs that EU and world leaders are preparing a blockbuster response to the eurozone debt crisis.The euro steadied against the dollar as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou headed for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on containing the crisis which US President Barack Obama said was scaring the world.