SURE, HE'S WICKED NICE TO THE ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY...:

Reality check from Oslo (E.J. Dionne Jr., December 14, 2009, Washington Post)

A French diplomatic veteran ticked off all the good news: Obama's pledge to close Guantanamo, the ban on torture, the continued withdrawal from Iraq, his reaching out to Iran and North Korea, engagement on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the quest for nuclear disarmament, the effort to "reset" relations with Russia. And there is America's new stance on global warming, on display in Copenhagen. This repositioning matters not just to elites but also to a rank-and-file green movement emerging as an alternative on the center-left to social democratic parties, notably in France and Germany.

But these are the days of European second thoughts: Obama is still interesting, he's still not George W. Bush, but what can he show for his efforts?

...but what good has it done?

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 14, 2009 7:30 AM