President Obama Tells Medvedev: ‘After My Election I Have More Flexibility’

When reporters were let into the room at the end of a meeting between President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, President Obama said that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense, but incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to give him “space.” The remark was picked up by microphones... Oops!




Here's the exchange:

President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.


President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…


President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.


President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

The U.S. and its NATO allies are pursuing a missile defense shield, while Russia objects that it would compromise its security.

So, why did he say that?

This is what the Center for Security Policy has to say:


Center for Security Policy
Mar 26, 2012

By Frank Gaffney, Jr.

In Seoul, South Korea on Monday, President Obama enthused once again about his vision of a world without nuclear weapons. It’s a dream he has had since he was a radical leftist studying at Columbia University in the early 1980s. And, in the hope of advancing it now as Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America, he declared that – since he was convinced we had more of these weapons than we need – he is going to reduce our arsenal. According to some accounts, he has in mind cutting it to one roughly the size of Pakistan’s.

In his address at Hankuk University, Mr. Obama suggested that he would get the Russians to do the same. That surely will come as a surprise to their once-and-future president, Vladimir Putin, since he has been quite aggressively beefing up the Kremlin’s nuclear forces. In fact, Putin recently unveiled a $770 billion defense modernization plan which would, among otherthings, buy 400 new long-range ballistic missiles. It is a safe bet that they will be outfitted with modern nuclear weapons, probably multiple, independently targetable ones at that.

It seems no more likely that the Russians will agree to reduce their vast monopoly on tactical nuclear weapons or their undisclosed and “non-deployed” stocks of strategic nuclear weapons – two other initiatives Mr. Obama declared he wanted to take. Even if they would, any such agreement would be wholly unverifiable.

If the Russians won’t play ball, it’s a safe bet no one else will either. Mr. Obama’s subordinates are signaling, however, that he is prepared to disarm us unilaterally through what one of them, Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller recently called “executive action.”

Read more at: Center for Security Policy

From Hotair: Congressman to Obama: You’d better not be trading away our missile defense, champ

Hm...

Update:
Hotair: Obama on hot-mic moment: I wasn’t “hiding the ball”