“Handshakes matter,” said David Paul Kuhn in RealClearPolitics. That’s why President Obama is taking flak for clasping hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the recent Summit of the Americas. (Watch Obama's encounter with Chavez) A handshake with an adversary can symbolize detente—as did Ronald Reagan’s with Mikhail Gorbachev. But Obama accomplished nothing, other than handing a propaganda victory to one of America’s “fiercest critics.”
Obama’s approach is better than George W. Bush’s “failed Cold War” treatment of combative neighbors, said Matthew Yglesias in The Daily Beast, including Chavez and the Castro brothers in Cuba. Nobody in Latin America represents a military threat to the U.S., so why not just cooperate with governments that like us and be polite to the rest? Let’s hope this isn’t Obama’s “last controversial handshake.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Good riddance to the televised presidential debate'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Caitlin Clark the No. 1 pick in bullish WNBA DraftSpeed Read As expected, she went to the Indiana Fever
-
Today's political cartoons - April 16, 2024Cartoons Tuesday's cartoons - sleepyhead, little people, and more
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion banSpeed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling BiblesSpeed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitnessIn Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
