Obama Stunts Chavez
By John Batchelor on April 18, 2009 at 1:20 PM in Hugo Chavez, President Barack Obama
Not Quite a Handshake. 
The photograph is meant to tell the story, but at this point there is fresh confusion. At the OAS confab at Trinidad, POTUS Obama sought out POV-for-Life Hugo Chavez in order to speak in friendship. The early report is that Mr. Obama said, “I want to be your friend.” No report of Mr. Chavez’s rejoinder. We do have the snapshot. Is this a handshake? Not quite. It is more of a surprise meeting, a grasping of hands, a hambone moment before the photogs. There will be plenty more angles of the shot, looking at the digital cameras raised behind the men. Later, the White House was quick to say there would be no private meeting between the two executives. Why do we have the photograph? A stunt. No policy change. No policy at all. Hugo Chavez can return to his inspired baiting of the United States, his cagey alliance with oil-soaked Islam, chiefly the tyrants of Tehran, and his ruinous nationalization policy that has wrecked and doomed the Venezuela economy. And Mr.
Obama can return to his amiable stroll through the corridors of power, meeting, greeting, chatting and engaging, sort of. No harm. No foul. Then again, this does look like a big propaganda win for Chavez. This does look to validate Chevez’s decision to invite into Venezuela not only Tehran agents and Hizballah recruits, but also Russian warships and strategic bombers as well as an arms factory. This does establish the case that Hugo Chavez is now on the same playing field as the POTUS. Is this what Mr. Obama means by “no pre-conditions” before a meeting? The famous Palmerston remark does suit the moment. “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, only permanent interests.”
John McCain and Alvaro Uribe.
You will recall that John McCain made a lengthy visit to Columbia during the campaign, and that he was with the pro US President Alvaro Uribe at just the moment Ingrid Betancourt was rescued from the FARC gangsters by spectacular special ops. You will recall that there were well established links between the FARC gangsters and Chavez. You will recall that there is constant fighting along the Colombia Venezuela border (right). You will recall that Chavez has a hand in all the mischief of the Andean nations. You will recall that Uribe and Chavez met and spoke of bi-lateral trade as recently as Tuesday 14 April, and that they avoided political rapproachment. There will be other voices after this photo op presidential grasping of hands. President Uribe. John McCain. Ingrid Betancourt? Ms. Betancourt’s President Nicolas Sarkozy? And not to forget Hugo Chavez.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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