Nice Trip, Now Get Back to Work, Mr. President

President Obama got his usual hero's welcome overseas, but this trip seemed "jarring and discordant" back in the US, writes Cynthia Tucker in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Our economic news keeps getting worse by the day, yet at summit after summit, “photos of the Obamas in resplendent, gold-bedecked palaces smacked of Marie Antoinette.” Obama cannot afford to be “out of touch with the everyday woes of constituents back home.”

“It will be Obama’s failure if he doesn’t grab the microphone immediately to remind the nation that he has a plan to revive the economy and produce jobs,” Tucker continues. He needs to confront the financial system, “let banks know he expects their full cooperation,” and “make economic revival his number one task." In this dire situation, with clear action necessary, “those photo ops in glittering palaces were a bit off-message.” (More President Obama stories.)