Cooling Hugo Chavez

Cooling Hugo Chavez

Last April during the Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama shook hands with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Their greet-and-grip photo op had that street-smart flair -- hooked thumbs, hip dude grins, brothers in populist cool.

"Hey," the defenders of this particular example of self-proclaimed "smart diplomacy" argued, "the Summit's going down in Trinidad, off Venezuela's coast, man, so Barry's in Hugo's 'hood, on his turf? And Barry O. -- truly spherical -- he's resettin' all these foreign relations damaged by that jackboot jive suit George Bush. Swallow it, you warmongerin' stuffed shirts. High fivin' Hugo is a step towards peace...