Trying Their Mightiest To Make Mighty Mountains Out Of Midget Molehills

Michael O'Hanlon wrote the windiest editorial ever in Friday's Wall Street Journal regarding Barack Obama and his willingness to meet with the leaders of rogue nations. O'Hanlon states:

A central element of Barack Obama's plan to change American foreign policy is his intention, upon becoming president, to meet with foreign leaders of extremist regimes -- the type of rogue-state dictators that George W. Bush has generally shunned during his time as president.

The only trouble is this isn't what Obama said. Obama said:

In the debate, Obama was asked if he would be willing to meet — without precondition — in the first year of his presidency with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

"I would," he responded.

Meaning not that he would meet with them, but only that he would be willing to meet with them. There is a big difference between being unwilling to rule out meetings in advance, and ruling out any meetings whatsoever.

Clausewitz observed that summits are very dangerous times for national leaders and careful preparation is important. I'm sure that Obama would agree.

So, Mr. O'Hanlon, case closed. The rest of your windy column is just ridiculously-excessive verbiage, because your initial starting point is just plain wrong.