Is Obama a Fool!
October 14, 2009 Posted by John Hinderaker, Powerline
Scott is on record as believing that he is; I have reserved judgment. President Obama's apparently unilateral concession to Russia in abandoning our anti-missile defense system in central Europe, with no publicly-acknowledged quid pro quo, may support the view that in international relations, at least, Obama is a fool. But we need to be fair here: it is possible that this seemingly unilateral giveaway was, in fact, a bargain, and that Obama got something from the Russians, presumably in relation to Russia's client Iran, that has not yet become public.
So this report on Hillary Clinton's trip to Russia is worrisome:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned major powers on Wednesday against intimidating Iran and said talk of sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme was "premature". ...
Clinton failed to secure any specific assurances from Russia on Iran during her visit, leaving her open to criticism at home that she had not received anything from Moscow after earlier U.S. concessions on missile defence.
I'm not giving up hope yet. Maybe Obama didn't really give away the store for nothing. So far, though, there is no evidence that he got anything from Russia in exchange for his abandonment of European missile defense. Could Obama possibly be that inept a negotiator? Time will tell.
