the political director was there today traveling with the president. we have chuck, you and i were talking earlier today on the phone. pictures are powerful. it seemed very debonair today. you would think putin who s been the outside man all these months looked like a member of the club. and yet those interesting shots of the president looking very awkward, three or four places away at the table there at lunchtime, looking like he didn t want to be in the same room as putin. then on top of that, that interesting back and forth when they re actually talking to each other. and obama the president is smiling. putin ain t smiling him. he gave him one quick look and looked away. give us words to those pictures, if you can. what you have to understand is these western european leaders, starting with president obama hollande want putin there. they want a relationship with putin. they, of course, want a relationship with the united states, but they want one with
putin. so it is awkward fat this point. putin wants to be a super power. you can argue in many ways he s trying to play western european leaders off of him a little bit. and they re playing along. this whole trip is interesting. think of it this way. for years, america s ties were always to western europe. and obviously the iron curtain blocked access to eastern europe. now look at it .today, it s the eastern europeans begging for security leadership. leadership particularly for security reasons, right? look at poland. they needed that speech that president obama gave where he started name checking. poland, you re not alone, li lithuan lithuania, you re not alone. astonia you re not alone.