Slow down there comrade ...

First, we seem to all be in agreement about my original beef with McCain during the GOP primary. The only thing you guys got wrong is that he wasn't "Bush-light", he was "Obama-light." At least Obama the candidate anyway. To nearly every answer on what ails the country Obama answered "government."And McCain's standard response was basically, "yes government, but only this much." I mean if both candidates are in agreeance on the "solution", then why pick the guy offering only a small amount of that solution? There were no "bold colors" of difference in the McCain message, even with Palin at his side.

Now something caught my eye reading the last posts. I too see that Chechnya is a sore spot in the Russian reemergence that has no obvious answer, but I want to address this ... Jambo wrote:

"I LIKE the idea of a strong Russia. I LIKE the idea of sharing the responsibility of being world police, and a re-established Russia is just that. Let the Russians deal with the Middle East, or North Korea, or China ..."

I understand your intent here, but it seems to me that your expectations of Russia are just a little out of whack. They will deal with Iran and North Korea, but literally, and not in the sense you mean. The Israeli (and presumably American) question on whether to hit the Iranian nuclear facilities has been complicated by Russian anti-missile technology. And the Persians didn't steal that technology. Nor does North Korea face any serious scolding from Russia. And Chinese markets are much too important for Russians selling their immense oil reserves. But besides all of that the most particular reason we can not expect, in my opinion, that Russia will "deal" with any of these nations that are the proverbial thorns in our side is precisely because they are thorns in our side. It's clear that the Medvedev-Putin agenda sees their reemergence only possible via an American decline. And although I would relish blaming this solely on Obama (namely Putin seeing our president as a piker on the geopolitical stage & thus fearing no serious reprisals for aggressive action), this attitude (if you want to call it that) clearly started under the last years of Bush. Bush & Putin had that soul swapping "I looked into his eyes" Vulcan mind meld at Crawford and it seemed a new era was dawning in US-Russo relations, perhaps even partnership. But the moment Bush announced he was unilaterally withdrawing from the missile treaty in favor of NATO allies, Putin snapped shut and went cold on the US (and hey, look, I'm not saying Bush was wrong, I supported that move, I was just marking the time line).

So my point here is that a "strong Russia", at least under its current leadership, makes all those hot spots you mentioned all the more difficult for us, not less. They aren't interested in making life easier for us buddy ... quite the opposite.