The first Obama administration was distinguished by eloquent promises and high expectations, especially in Norway where the jury of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded their annual distinction to Barack Obama even before he had settled down into the chair behind the presidential desk.
The record of those four years proved decidedly mixed, and the second Obama turn has been one of disappointments, danger, and amateurism — the last-named quality in his second-term foreign policy team responsible for the first two judgments.
A third disappointment seems imminent. Obama ruefully returned last week from Asia. The Obama "pivot" to Asia from the Middle East was always a mysterious initiative. Why? What could it mean other than a provocation or threat to China? Yet his trip excluded China.