Longing for Rock Star Obama in the Americas

Forget substance. This week I am totally into form, into first impressions, into letting theatrics rule the day.

I embraced this state of mind after watching President Obama's first appearance on the world stage. Or more to the point, after realizing that the Americas stood no chance of competing with the substance of his eight-day, three-summit tour of Europe that covered issues as diverse as the creation of a new worldwide financial order, control of nuclear weapons, elimination of the threat of al-Qaida and rebuilding U.S. relations with the Muslim world.

There is simply no way to beat that. Obama's next international foray will be south, with a one-day stop in Mexico before heading to the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, where the issues on the agenda are human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability.

Don't get me wrong; those issues are critical. But to make the most of Obama's first Latin American and Caribbean visit -- at a time when his rock star status is still strong -- a two-day summit of mostly closed door meetings, a photo op with the other 33 leaders of the Americas and the issuance of a 10-plus-page declaration with all sorts of good intentions won't do it.

So what do I want? Another round of the Obama charm offensive. An opportunity for him to talk to people directly and invite them to think, as he did in Europe, "about the future and not the past," about the possibility of forging "common solutions to our common problems," about the urgency for a "new spirit of activism and responsibility" and about the notion that "America is changing, but it cannot be America alone that changes."

The region is ready for it. "You shouldn't underestimate the importance of a different tone, a different style, especially in Latin America where a lot of the source of irritation has been their treatment by the United States, rather than substance," said Michael Shifter of the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue.

Recent polls show Obama is more highly regarded in Latin America than in the United States. With an event such as the town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France, or the roundtable discussion with students in Istanbul, Turkey, Obama could chip away at the less than casual anti-American sentiment that festers in the region

"We haven't had a global leader with Obama's appeal in a very long time," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the center-left Washington think tank NDN, who added that the president's power to reach out is aided not only by today's communications but also by his desire to speak straight and openly to people everywhere. "The politics of the bottom up we saw in the election is going global," Rosenberg said.

As of this writing, Obama has just two public events scheduled for his trip south: a "digital" event in Mexico, in which he will "communicate with a wide range of people," according to a senior State Department official, and a speech during the Summit's inaugural ceremony, following addresses by President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize and Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago. Not exactly the Latin Grammys.

The White House says that Obama's agenda has not been finalized. But even if he does not have the opportunity to speak directly to the people of the Americas this time, it is unlikely that Obama will be upstaged as President George W. Bush was at the last Summit of the Americas. In 2005 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a counter summit that culminated with a rally at a soccer stadium that stole most of the international media attention.

Chavez certainly was the rock star then but his popularity was fueled to a great degree by widespread anti-Bush sentiment and opposition to the Bush administration's policies and style. This time around, the new U.S. president is simply too popular for Chavez to attempt a similar sideshow. "It would just hurt Chavez," said Shifter.

Perhaps my longing for an Obama town hall meeting has a lot to do with what I saw in Mar del Plata. Many of the people who marched were motivated by anger and bitterness and not by anything that could be construed as edifying or constructive. While Chavez draws on populism to create division, Obama appears to be trying something quite different.

"We're joined together by our pursuit of a life that's productive and purposeful," Obama told the students in Istanbul. And when you realize it, "mistrust begins to fade and our smaller differences no longer overshadow the things that we share. And that's where progress begins."