You can get up off your knees now

Is it just me? Or did anyone else think our President came off as overly conciliatory?

The really scary part is the French coming into these negotiations with "non-negotiable" take-aways...and walking away saying "We would never have hoped to get so much"! It leaves one with somewhat of an uneasy feeling. Kind of like buying a car when the salesman immediately agrees to your offer and your left wondering "could I have gotten a better deal"?

I am also left wondering how our esteemed leader is going to reconcile "setting guidelines to cap bankers pay", one of the highlights of the G20 release, with the American Constitution. It is one thing to propose salary limitations on companies that accept government bailout money (as a condition of the bailout), and quite another to propose limiting the salaries of all, or any employees of a private institution.

One of the reporters called on in the press conference was Justin Webb, BBC's North American Editor, who is someone who's blog I follow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/

Mr. Webb asked a very astute question:

In the spirit of openness with which you say you're going to run your administration, could you give us an insight into an area or areas where you came to London wanting something and didn't get it, where you compromised, where you gave something away to achieve the wider breakthrough agreement?

To which President Obama basically replied "no":

"I'd rather not specify what those precise items would be, because this is a collective document."

Also of note is Obama's failure to mention the above G20 citation regarding "capping bankers pay".

Well, as time goes by we shall learn more of the details of the G20 agreements, although for the time we shall have to content ourselves with press conferences. An on that subject it is interesting to compare the press conferences of various leaders:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKL267850520090402

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ijp8uvmxCWmwPCjKiYpnb704-kiAD97AL5P80


If anyone has links to transcripts of either Sarkozy or Merkel's post summit press conferences or releases, please feel free to post them in comments.

Cheers!

~Finntann~