Tipping Our Hand

Even as Russia offers to help Hugo Chavez find "peaceful" uses for nuclear energy down in Venezuala, President Obama sets up a collection of new policies, helpfully explaining to our adversaries when America can be counted on not to use nuclear weapons.

No doubt the President means to "lead by example." The only problem? It's impossible to lead if none of the US' adversaries is willing to follow.

And it's disheartening to suspect that the President sees his own country and others through a lens of moral equivalence, implicitly arguing that it's inconsistent to ask others to limit their nukes if we're not willing to limit our own.