Obama The Spelunker

Why would I call him a "spelunker"? Because he caves every chance he gets.

Even a center-left columnist in the Washington Post has figured that out:

Barack Obama has proved in the past few days that he can work smoothly and productively with a wide range of foreign leaders — provided that he allows them to set the agenda. …

What’s striking about Obama’s diplomacy, however, has been his willingness to embrace the priorities of European governments, Russia and China while playing down — or setting aside altogether — principal American concerns.

As U.S. officials readily acknowledge, strategic arms control is of much greater interest to Russia — whose nuclear arsenal is rapidly deteriorating — than it is to the United States. From Washington’s perspective, stopping Iran’s nuclear program is far more urgent than agreeing on the next incremental reduction in Cold War warheads. Yet Obama essentially consented in his first summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to devote the next four months of U.S.-Russian relations to an intensive effort to complete a new START treaty. No such cooperation on Iran is on the horizon. “I don’t think we want to suggest that somehow . . . there’s agreement about how to proceed,” one U.S. briefer conceded.

The G-20 and NATO summits followed a similar pattern. Even before Obama traveled to Europe, his administration surrendered on the biggest U.S. priorities — which were prompting Germany and other Western European countries to boost domestic spending and dispatch more troops and trainers to Afghanistan. With stimulus off the table, the economic summit centered on the platform of Germany and France — expanding government regulation — and on areas of general agreement, such as the provision of fresh funding for the IMF.

People who are desperate to be loved will sell their souls for the attention they crave. Obama has the added advantage of being able to sell our souls as well.