It sounded like the dialogue from a bad spy film.
"This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."
"I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."
But in fact it was a exchange between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, accidentally caught on an open microphone as they discussed apparently deadlocked talks on a missile shield - and it quickly lodged itself in the American presidential campaign debate.
Paranoid hyper-partisans on the Right hailed it as a confirmation of Obama's deviousness, the latest sign that he is intent on selling out America's interests to its enemies in an unaccountable second term - when he'll have no further election to think about.
They are, as I said, paranoid and riffing off the "enemy within" narrative they've been playing since the days of Joe McCarthy, when Communists ruled the Kremlin.
But just because you're crazy doesn't mean you're stupid. This particular Obama slip will leave a mark – and just not for the reasons the wingnuts on the far-Right might think.
Yes, President Obama is riding high in the polls right now, buoyed by an improving economy – leading the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney by double digits in some polls.
His job approval ratings are above 50 per cent for the first time since the killing of Osama bin Laden, while Romney's unfavourability ratings are already above 50 per cent - a bad sign for a non-incumbent nominee heading into the general election.
Nonetheless, this open mike slip will resonate, and probably appear in a Romney campaign ad this fall, because it highlights a core weakness of the Obama campaign – namely, his failure to make a clear case for what a second term might bring. "More of the same" isn't a satisfactory answer in US campaigns. Read on and comment » | John Avlon* | Saturday, March 31, 2012
* John Avlon is senior columnist for ‘Newsweek’ and ‘The Daily Beast’
