Much fuss has been made the last few days about President Obama (gee, that's fun to type) being cordial with "evil" heads of state. Frankly, I think the policy of the U.S. oughta be that we're willing to sit and engage in gentlemanly talk with anyone, especially a guy like Hugo Chávez who, whatever else one thinks of him, is the duly-elected head of an important country. Turning our back on someone powerful and refusing to even confront him on a social level is a lot like what I did in fourth grade when I was scared of the class bully and thought that if I pretended he didn't exist, he'd go away.
For some reason though, some folks think it's a sign of "strength" to stubbornly refuse to meet with these people. I think those are the same people who believe that any day now, our policy of sanctions will bring Fidel Castro to his knees. They also seem to like to invoke the name of Neville Chamberlain and point out how only weakness came from his cozying up to Hitler. Apparently, if you shake hands with a dictator, it's almost the same thing as giving him half of Czechoslavakia.
Naturally, as Republicans have been attacking Obama for not bitchslapping Chávez when he had the chance, Democrats have hauled out the photos of Rumsfeld's warm greeting with Saddam Hussein, of Bush hand-holding with Prince Abdullah, etc. Also mentioned is the meeting between President Richard M. Nixon and Mao Tse-tung…but Bill O'Reilly on his show the other night said that wasn't true; that Nixon on his fabled trip to China met with Chou En-lai, not Mao Tse-tung. Of course, as the above photo and many others prove, O'Reilly doesn't know what he's talking about.
So would anyone like to bet me this won't be on Keith Olbermann's show this evening?