Talk about kicking a man when he’s down.
Forbes has dropped Barack Obama to No. 2 on its annual “Most Powerful People” list, giving the top spot to China’s President Hu Jintao.
Citing the “mighty blow” Obama’s Democrats suffered in the midterm elections as a reason for the demotion, the magazine said of Obama, “It’s quite a come-down for last year’s most powerful person, who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two years.”
Of Hu, Forbes wrote, as a leader who exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, “Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts.”