Strategic Skill

Smart Diplomacy:

You know, today we're just going to quote the editorial board of the New York Times.

The Israelis have refused to stop all building. The Palestinians say that they won’t talk to the Israelis until they do, and President Mahmoud Abbas is so despondent he has threatened to quit. Arab states are refusing to do anything.

Mr. Obama’s own credibility is so diminished (his approval rating in Israel is 4 percent) that serious negotiations may be farther off than ever.

Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move down the board.

Well, you know, you voted for him. You knew he'd never had a real job, let alone a serious executive position. Remember how charming it was when his campaign cited his campaign as proof that he knew how to be executive for a nationwide organization?

When your supporters start fielding chess metaphors against you, you may be in trouble. It'd be worse if they were poker metaphors, though, because diplomacy and intelligence are much more like poker than they are like chess. That's just a writer's convention, though; the Times couldn't see three moves down a chessboard any more than it could tell you, based on the fourth card showing, whether it was possible that someone at the table might be holding a flush.

At least, that's how they've always struck me. But I do play poker, and chess in a playful manner.