Story highlights
President Barack Obama just wrapped a week-long trip in Australia and Asia
Obama was coming off a bruising midterm election for his party
Obama spent the week focusing on deliverables in China and Myanmar
Obama described his interactions with Vladimir Putin as "businesslike and blunt"
A week ago, President Barack Obama landed in China with a considerable political limp after this month’s midterm elections. But as the President left Australia following a G20 Summit in Brisbane, the narrative, at least overseas, spotlighted Obama with more of a spring in his step.
“This was a strong week for American leadership,” Obama said at a news conference at the conclusion of the summit on Sunday. The headline in the country’s “Daily Mail” tabloid read “Wham Bam,” below a picture of a confident-looking U.S. President.
Obama’s trip to Asia began with a foreign policy bright spot – the release of two American prisoners from North Korea. In China, the president unveiled a surprise climate deal with China. Stopping in Myanmar, Obama pointed to progress in democratic reforms in the Southeast Asian country. Arriving in Australia, there were ample opportunities to take some jabs at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As a result, Obama left for Washington, largely having avoided the mishaps that dogged his recent foreign travels – save of course the blip of chewing gum in China. The result was a trip more focused on deliverables than distractions.
“If you ask me I’d say that’s a pretty good week,” Obama said Sunday. “I intend to build on that momentum when I return home tomorrow.”
Challenges however weren’t far behind Air Force One. Within hours after Obama’s departure from Australia, a new foreign policy test had emerged for his administration – reports that an American aid worker, Peter Kassig, had been beheaded by ISIS.
Related: Obama calls hostage’s beheading by ISIS ‘pure evil’
Before leaving Australia, the President offered no apologies for Putin’s frosty reception in Brisbane.
But he steered clear of the heated rhetoric used by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot who scoffed that Putin was reliving the glories of the Soviet Union or Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper who ordered the Russian leader to “get out of Ukraine.”
Obama simply described his own interactions with the Russian leader as “businesslike and blunt.”
He indicated he is not considering any moves to ramp up U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
“The sanctions that we have in place are biting plenty good,” Obama insisted.
The Kassig murder is likely to renew questions about the president’s approach for dealing with the terror group.
At his news conference, the president was asked about statements made at a congressional hearing last week by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Martin Dempsey who held out the possibility he may recommend U.S. ground forces engage in combat in Iraq.
“There are always circumstances in which the United States might need to deploy US ground troops,” Obama told reporters.
The president, who often chastises reporters for engaging in hypotheticals, offered one of his own.
“If we discovered that ISIL had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then yes you can anticipate that not only would Chairman Dempsey recommend me sending US ground troops to get that weapon out of their hands, but I would order it,” he added.
For months, the president has repeatedly ruled out deploying combat troops into the battle against ISIS.
“I will not commit you, and the rest of our Armed Forces, to fighting another ground war in Iraq,” Obama assured soldiers at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida last September.
Much of the president’s attention during his trip to Asia was devoted to his renewed ambition to confront the issue of climate change.
Earlier in the week in Myanmar, the president brushed off the notion he should work with Republican leaders in Congress for a bipartisan approach to climate.
“I have responsibilities as president not just to current generations but to future generations,” Obama said.
As temperatures in Brisbane soared into the triple digits during the G20 summit, Obama took note of Australia’s vast natural resources as he gently poked the country’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is a key ally on issues ranging from ISIS to Ukraine but is also a climate change critic.
“The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened,” Obama warned. “No nation is immune, and every nation has a responsibility to do its part,” Obama said.
After an unexpectedly eventful week overseas, Obama will likely plunge back into a series of showdowns with congressional Republicans, beginning with the fight over the president’s upcoming executive action on immigration.
Related: Defiant Obama says he won’t bend to GOP
Still, the more assertive White House attitude, driven by a President undeterred by his midterm defeat is drawing cheers from Democratic supporters.
“Since the midterms, POTUS has taken the lead on net neutrality, climate change and now immigration. I like THIS Obama. Give em hell,” liberal talk show host Bill Press tweeted about the president’s new unapologetic tone.
But Obama joked about his diminished political standing back home, when he was asked at a youth town hall what he would do as president of Myanmar.
“You’re always popular in somebody else’s country. When you’re in your own country, everybody is complaining,” the President said.