An Important Change

I spent Saturday in Odessa in the Ukraine, a surprising gem of a city on the shores of the Black Sea. No one here cares very much about the American presidential race. Nor do the monthly unemployment fiction..I mean figures..make any impact on the Ukrainians. They wonder about only one thing concerning the USA: when will America resume its role as the leader of the free world? At least three different people to whom I spoke asked me if I was concerned about the way that Putin of Russia treats the United States. They each warned me that Putin's actions give the clear impression (at least in the Ukraine) that he thinks of Americans as fools to be manipulated. Two told me that at least when George Bush was president, the Russians were wary of displeasing America. Since 2009, however, Russia has been unconcerned on that score.

It is one thing to sit in Connecticut and ponder what the world thinks of America and the actions of our government. It is entirely something else to hear first hand from worried Ukrainians that Russia and its president are playing America for fools and that president Obama and his government do not even seem to recognize that fact. It is most disconceerting.