As she lands in Russia to haggle over the details of a new arms limitation agreement, Stephen Walt is not sure:
What Iâ??ll be watching is whether Hillary can close the deal. In general, you shouldnâ??t send the secretary of state or the president to a big-time negotiation unless youâ??re pretty confident that the deal is ready and all thatâ??s left are some minor details that will be easy to work out. You might also send the secretary if you needed someone with real status to make a final push, but youâ??ve got to be ready to walk away if the other side wonâ??t play ball. Otherwise, your top people look ineffective, or even worse, they look desperate for a deal..What worries me is the Obama teamâ??s track record on this front. It was a mistake to send Obama off to shill for Chicagoâ??s bid to host the Olympic games, for example, partly because heâ??s got better things to do, but mostly because the gambit failed and made him look ineffectual. Ditto his attendance at the Copenhagen summit on climate change. Attending the summit was a nice way to signal his commitment to the issue, but it was obvious beforehand that no deal was going to be reached and his time could have been better spent elsewhere
