Obama ranked No. 3 on Foreign Policy's global thinkers list

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/130839-obama-ranked-no-3-on-foreign-policys-global-thinkers-list

Obama ranked No. 3 on Foreign Policy's global thinkers list
By Bridget Johnson - 11/28/10 01:08 PM ET


A magazine has put President Obama at No. 3 on its list of the 100 Top Global Thinkers.

Foreign Policy magazine ranked billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who have pledged to give away half their wealth through global causes, first on the list.

Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize shortly into his term for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," made it to No. 3 on the Foreign Policy list "for charting a course through criticism."

"Sure, the brainy young American president has had a tough sophomore year, with a stubbornly sluggish economy, worsening conditions in Afghanistan, an electoral backlash at home, and the surprise challenge of more than 4 million barrels of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico," the magazine wrote. "His sweeping plans to overhaul immigration and reinvent the way Americans use energy never got off the ground, and he can boast of neither Middle East peace nor mastery over the restive Republicans at home rising up against what they bemoan as the advent of European-style socialism."

Yet he's arguably the world's most popular leader, the magazine argues, "and he is slowly but surely inventing a new kind of U.S. leadership to go along with his vision of an America that once again projects its power through the force of its ideas."

"In many ways, he's the most realist of recent U.S. presidents, determined to focus on the terrible challenges, from Afghanistan to climate change, that he's been dealt," the magazine reasoned. "The world may yet thank him for it."

No. 5 on the list is Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, No. 8 is Gen. David Petraeus, and No. 9 is Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

[rug]

1. Warren Buffet #1, Bill Gates #2. Who's #4, Sam Walton?

[Posteritatis]

5. Zhou Xiaochuan

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/29/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers?page=0,3

[jenmito]

2. K&R (still at 0, which would be understandable if this was posted in freeperville).

:wtf: is going on here? Is it still the Democratic Underground?

[emulatorloo]

4. very odd n/t

[nosmokes]

3. I'm not saying Obama should be higher, but their numbers 1 and 2 are BS!

The only thing the Gates foundation cares about is more corporatization. Now to be fair, it's all they know.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. and #2, according to "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" are only interested

in making the world's countries economically dependent on them...and then blackmailing them into doing whatever they want them to do.

so much for the credibility of THAT list.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1211-01.htm
RE: Corporate Globalization....
Theodore Roosevelt looked at this situation and bluntly said, in April of 1906, "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

[Posteritatis]

7. These sorts of things generally rate influence, not saintliness

It's like Time's Person of the Year in that sense - they aren't necessarily awards.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. So, they should be called The Macchiavelli awards...

[Odin2005]

10. 'Foreign Policy" is a Pro-Establishment rag.

[ProSense]

9. This list is ridiculous

Ron Paul 19

Elizabeth Warren is 24

Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, William Perry, and George Shultz 25

Thomas Friedman 33

John Kerry and Richard Lugar are 34

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GeorgeGist]

12. Oh Jesus ...

I am speechless.