Open Mic Night

Just five months after reporters picked up a conversation where Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy disparaged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamim Netanyahu, the open mic exposes more about our President than 5 years of the US Media. This time, it was with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Obama was asking help from Vladimir Putin to get some "space" — in order to gain the “flexibility” to eventually cave on missile defense:

President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.  

Oh, you don't think this is a big deal? Biden would say, that it is, “a big f*****g deal.” What solution does Obama envision that would pay off for Putin so much that the Russians would agree to the “space” necessary by keeping quiet about US plans for its deployment? The only possible answer would be the dismantling of even the smaller missile-defense system to which Obama committed in 2009.

Wouldn't you say that he just tipped his hand? Showed his cards?

What other nations has Obama asked for “space” on American foreign and national-security policy so that he can win a second term? And what American interests is Obama willing to trade for that “space”?

Oh, don't worry - he made a joke about it with reporters, by asking if their mikes were on--before amplifying on the substance of his exchange with Medvedev.


"I think everybody understands -- if they don't, they haven't been listening to my speeches -- that I want to reduce nuclear stockpiles," Obama said. "And one of the barriers to doing that is building trust and cooperation around missile defense issues. And so this is not a matter of hiding the ball."

Unless, it in fact, is?