Barack Obama Speaks On Relationship With  Former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel

<h4>Barack Obama Speaks On Relationship With  Former German Chancellor&comma; Angela Merkel<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>OpenLife Nigeria reports that former President of the United States of America&comma; Barack Obama has different yardsticks for accessing different countries and notable individuals in relationship to democratic practice and humane governance&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;This&comma; to an extent&comma; has been his post presidential preoccupation&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Reflecting on Europe and it&&num;8217&semi;s economic stimulus including leadership response to engaging issues&comma; Obama&comma; in his book&comma; &&num;8220&semi;A Promised Land&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Obama calls Angela Merkel&comma; immedriate past German Chancellor&comma; &&num;8220&semi;reliable&comma; honest&comma; and intellectually precise&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said the chancellor was understandably skeptical of him at first&comma; but the two grew to trust one another&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In the memoir&comma; the former US President offered a slew of praise for Angela Merkel&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He did not&comma; however&comma; resent that skepticism&period; &&num;8220&semi;For a German head of government&comma; an aversion to possible demagogy was probably a healthy attitude&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Over the years&comma; he found Merkel to be increasingly agreeable&comma; calling her &&num;8221&semi; intellectually precise and friendly in a natural way&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; he criticized Germany&&num;8217&semi;s policy on Greece during the country&&num;8217&semi;s debt difficulties after the financial crash&comma; when Merkel and then-Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble &lpar;CDU&rpar; had held fast to austerity and reducing public borrowing as the answer to almost all economic difficulties&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;I noticed that they &lbrack;Merkel and French former President Nicolas Sarkozy&rsqb; rarely mentioned that German and French banks were some of Greece&&num;8217&semi;s biggest lenders&comma; or that much of Greeks&&num;8217&semi; accumulated debt had been racked up buying German and French exports — facts that might have made clear to voters why saving the Greeks from default amounted to saving their own banks and industries&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Obama wrote&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Obama also criticized former French President Nicolas Sarkozy&comma; who he felt was &&num;8220&semi;no real counterweight&&num;8221&semi; to Merkel&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Unlike Merkel&comma; Obama wrote&comma; Sarkozy appeared too disorganized to construct a serious plan for economic reform&comma; adding that Sarkozy&&num;8217&semi;s approach lacked &&num;8220&semi;ideological consistency&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Only recently&comma; precisely June 28&comma; Obama&comma; yet again&comma; revisited his long standing relationship with Merkel on the Smithsonian museum space and occupancy&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He wrote&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;As president&comma; I saw Chancellor Merkel lead through crises with her wise pragmatism&comma; good humor&comma; and unrelenting moral compass—and I feel lucky to call her a friend&period; Grateful for the chance to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture today&comma; a reminder that America is a constant work in progress&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;