There's one moment I remember very clearly with clenched teeth from the 2008 presidential campaign. Senator Barack Obama, who had no experience in foreign policy and hadn't the slightest idea what he was talking about, informed us that it was "ridiculous" to think foreign dictators care about U.S. leaders sitting down to talk to them. Obama had little patience for the idea that ties with America were worth anything, or carried any kind of meaningful prestige. He scoffed at the idea that by setting conditions for talking with these thugs, we were making them pay any sort of price whatsoever.
