After Midterm Loss, Obama To Attend APEC Summit With Diminished Global Clout

Fresh off a blistering defeat for the Democratic Party in the U.S. midterm elections, President Barack Obama will head to Beijing next week for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and an official state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But Tuesday’s electoral losses and strengthened congressional opposition at home, with both House and Senate under Republican control, mean Obama may be negotiating with world leaders with diminished global clout. 

International observers have painted Obama as a weakened president after Tuesday’s election losses, seen as a reflection of voters’ disenchantment with the president. The midterm defeat is "going to diminish [Obama] in his foreign policy,” Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, told the Washington Post. “Leaders in Asia will now view him as a lame duck.” But it still remains to be seen to what degree the president's deflated stature might affect his negotiations with world leaders at the summit.

Read the full article at International Business Times.