Chatting with Chavez today, bowling with Ahmadinejad tomorrow

Earlier today I loaded CNN.com as I usually do when I'm in the mood for a quick fix on the news. Given their unbelievably biased coverage of the tea parties earlier in the week (you can tell I Twitter too much when I made that one word instead of two), I've been doing that less frequently. What I saw almost made me fall off my couch. Our President sharing a coy smile and a handshake with none other than Hugo Chavez.

Even in my worst of Leftist days, I despised Mr. Chavez. I had a friend when I was living in Belgium (in 2002-2003) that was Venezuelan, and he would tell me stories of his family's apartment in Caracas getting fire bombed, and they always suspected Chavez's chronies. His parents would be harassed and assaulted at protests against the government. Even though I, at the time, was an avowed Socialist, I disapproved of his violent methods of keeping and saying in power.

There are many things that frighten me about Mr. Chavez. His being in bed with our greatest enemies, namely Arab extremists and Mr. Ahmadinejad, top fairly high on my list. In a visit to the UN in 2006 Mr. Chavez stood in front of the world and called a sitting U.S. President "the Devil" and declared that the US was "on its way down". Previously he had stated that Bush committed genocide and said the U.S. President should be imprisoned by an international criminal court. Granted, Obama has been on an anti-Bush bend for a while now (compare this to Bush's refusal to comment on Obama on his latest trip to Canada). Meeting, shaking hands with, and smiling for the cameras with Hugo Chavez is just another of President Obama's slaps in the face for a man who served this country for eight years. This meeting with Chavez, however, signals not just disrespect for former President Bush, but also a shocking Left turn in American foreign policy.

Mr. Obama seems to believe that opening tourism to Cuba will bring it closer to democracy, and farther from the Communist totalitarianism they've been living under for the past fifty years. Allowing more Americans onto the shores of this Communist isle will do nothing more than line the pockets of party leaders, further entrenching them in power. Family members who have vocally oppposed the regime would be foolish to visit, given the liklihood of an "accident" (read: firing squad) which would prevent their safe return to US soil. Being nice, Mr. Obama thinks, is enough to drive the country off the Communist dictatorship path it's been on for the past ten US Presidents.

Mr. Obama believes that he can charm the world the same way that he charmed the US public with empty rhetoric about "hope" and "change". Leaders like Kim Jong Il and Hugo Chavez, however, do not respond to smiles, handshakes, and empty threats of UN sanctions. Now, more than ever, we need a leader who the the rest of the world respects, and more importantly, fears. Niccolo Machiavelli famously stated, "It is better to be feared than loved. You cannot be both." Well delivered speeches, shirtless trots on the beach with your family in Hawaii, and catchy campaign slogans may win elections, Mr. Obama, but they do not, and will not, keep this country safe.