Mr. Obama's defenders said he appeared to be trying to smooth over a tense situation.
Could it in fact be something that helps smooth over a tough situation with a foreign country?
Mr. Obama told radio talk-show host Michael Smerconish last week that his re-election will smooth over bad feelings.
In recent years, as trade between the countries has boomed, they have attempted to smooth over regular border disputes.
WSJ: Border Dispute Overshadows Chinese Premier Li's Visit to India
Mr Trichet presides over a currency zone more diverse than America's, but without the fiscal stabilisers that help smooth over regional variations.
In recent months he has tried to smooth over tensions with Cambodia.
It helps smooth over some of the unevenness encountered week to week and illustrates how misleading initial estimates of economic data can be.
FORBES: Poof! Good News From Last Week's Job Data Disappears
Quid pro quo, Israel's leaders help Russia smooth over its differences with America, even those that ought to disturb Israel just as much.
Ministers had hoped to smooth over dissent by introducing the cards gradually, beginning with students, foreigners, airport workers and other soft or sensible targets.
There were bumps in the beginning that Bill helped smooth over.
Impacts could be difficult to smooth over time, even for governments.
George Papandreou, the new foreign minister, helped smooth over an awkward row between the Albanian and Macedonian prime ministers when the Macedonians at first tried to keep out thousands of the refugees.
We are left with the stark realization that we are not in control and we can no longer use marketing to just smooth over the rough spots in our offerings and the disconnects in our brand propositions.
Though the company has thrown up a public response on its blog, it doesn't clarify what transpired, what "contractual obligations" were allegedly breached, or what (if anything) Kik might do to attempt to smooth over the spat.
ENGADGET: RIM: Kik was pulled from App World over 'breached contractual obligations'
He sent a letter to FORBES, dated July 20, 2007, saying Shari had made "little or no contribution" to Viacom or CBS. On July 24, seeking to smooth over the flap, he faxed his daughter a memo.
At the same time, however, it is almost impossible to contemplate large projects without debt, nor to smooth over the minor ups and downs of the economic cycle and the timing differences between tax receipts and spending demands.
The priority in Brussels is for smooth management over the next six months, not bust-ups over press freedom.
Mr Brown would spend his visit trying to "smooth things over" with his party's biggest political backers, he added.
It says Tokyo was just "trying to smooth things over" by insisting that the Post had misquoted Mr Abe last week.
If you've experienced some rebooting issues with your handset, it's likely that the unspecified grab bag of "other improvements" includes a few welcome bug fixes to smooth things over.
ENGADGET: T-Mobile HTC 8X gets Windows Phone 8 update packing text messaging and WiFi tweaks
If unresponsiveness in Cadillac's CUE infotainment system has been a personal point of frustration, relief is on the way: an update to smooth things over is being worked on.
ENGADGET: Cadillac to update CUE infotainment system for improved responsiveness
The benefits remain, not least the increased ability of households to smooth spending over their lifetimes and of markets to allocate risks to those most willing to bear them (see article).
If this theory of race is correct (and more research is certainly needed), it indicates a strong prescription: policies that encourage groups to retain their identity within a society will cause trouble, but those that encourage cultural integration will smooth things over.
And I think one of the things that I kept seeing the longer I was there was that there was this sense of entitlement that was bolstered by what we called helicopter parents - that were always there to smooth things over, to make excuses, to pass the buck.
Keen to smooth tensions over the euro zone crisis when Hollande and Merkel met this month to mark 50 years of Franco-German reconciliation, French chefs chose to reproduce the famous meal of filet of beef and raspberry macaroons prepared in 1962 for post-war leaders Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer when they signed their friendship treaty.
This 7km-long white-knuckle adventure combines hiking, climbing over smooth rock slabs alongside waterfalls, ziplining over a surging river and navigating wild canyons via bridges and metal rungs.
States smooth out investment swings over several years, allowing them some time to recover.
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