Politics

Obama postpones trip to Australia and Indonesia for a second time

Jon Ward Contributor
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President Obama on Thursday postponed for the second time in three months a trip to Australia and Indonesia, underlining the difficult political headwinds he is facing at home.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs put out a statement at 11:59 p.m. Thursday stating that Obama had spoken with the leaders of Australia and Indonesia to express “deep regret” at the postponement.

Gibbs’ statement offered no reason for the cancellation, but the move underlined how serious of a problem the continued oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is for the Obama administration. Controversy over botched interventions into Senate races by top White House aides is contributing to the president’s woes.

Obama already postponed the trip to Southeast Asia once in March, a few days before the House was scheduled to vote on passage of his health care legislation.

His rescheduled trip was intended to take place sometime later in June, but Gibbs’ statement gave no hint of when the president might now make the trip up, though it did say that Obama “looked forward to rescheduling so that he can visit both countries soon.”

Gibbs also noted that Obama will hold one on one meetings with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the Group of 20 meeting in Canada later this month.

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