With virtually all major polls showing a significant drop in U.S. President Barack Obama's approval ratings since his second term in office began, the American leader may well wish he were back in Burma (aka Myanmar). Last November, in a historic trip that was also the president's first overseas trip since winning re-election, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma.
Unlike Prime Minister Shinzo Abe whose own trip to Burma in May — the first by a Japanese leader since 1977 — was followed two months later by a landslide political win, strong approval ratings and growing domestic optimism, Obama is having a tough time going. Indeed, he may well wish he were back in Burma or already in the midst of his upcoming summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.
Reducing the attention paid to what has so far been a successful "pivot on Burma" would, however, be a mistake.