Is it normal to NOT be able to access an external IP from an internal host that lives on the same network as the other internal host that corresponds to the external IP?
For instance: say I'm on an internal network for widget inc and want to access widget.com which is a public IP with NAT to an internal host called widget1.local. Is it normal to not be able to do so?
Is it normal? Well, normal like vehicular manslaughter in a busy city. "Normal" doesn't necessarily mean "desirable" however.
It's called hairpin routing among Cisco people, but has other names (e.g. "tromboning"). Some routers support it, others don't. For example, I don't know about 2012, but three years ago Cisco's IOS did not support hairpin routing.