Ah, open microphones at photo ops.  Is there anything they can’t expose?  And is there any lesson about them that Barack Obama can learn?  Five months after reporters picked up a conversation in which Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy disparaged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamim Netanyahu, Obama forgot to check the microphones yet again in a conversation with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.  This time, however, the microphones picked up the sound of Obama begging for some political help from Vladimir Putin — in order to gain the “flexibility” to cave on missile defense:

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.

This, to quote our Vice President, is “a big f*****g deal.”  What solution does Obama envision that would pay off for Putin so much that the Russians would agree to the “space” necessary by keeping quiet about US plans for its deployment?  The only possible answer would be the dismantling of even the smaller missile-defense system to which Obama committed in 2009.  And it looks as though Obama has already tipped his hand to the Russians — against whom this particular defense system would be mainly ineffective anyway — in exchange for political assistance to influence the election.

Scott Johnson says that this is a “space program” he can’t support:

The man has big plans for us — the kind of plans he won’t be sharing with the American people. Not yet.

Something tells me this next election is a big one. Let’s kill Obama’s “space” program.

Obama won’t share these plans with the American people. However, he’ll share them with the Russians, and ask for their help in influencing the election.  That should tell American voters all they need to know about this President.

Or perhaps not.  What other nations has Obama asked for “space” on American foreign and national-security policy so that he can win a second term?  And what American interests is Obama willing to trade for that “space”?