Medvedev Claims No Preference for Next U.S. President

Here’s an interesting bit of truth from an opinion column about John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton by Philip Stephens of the FT:

There is a view fashionable in foreign policy circles that this is all politics. Pretty much whatever is said during the campaign will be lost to reality once the new president reaches the White House. Mr McCain’s faith in raw power will be blunted by the hard truth of US military overstretch; Mr Obama’s belief in diplomatic engagement will collide with the recalcitrance of tyrants and terrorists. Mr McCain cannot win in Iraq, but neither can Mr Obama easily withdraw. Such sentiments are not confined to Washington. The other day I heard precisely the same view from a Russian business leader close to Dmitry Medvedev. This friend of the Kremlin said he had asked the new Russian president whom he would prefer to win the US election: Mr Obama or Mr McCain. It made no difference, Mr Medvedev had replied. Democrat or Republican, Mr Bush’s successor would have to operate in a multipolar world in which power was dispersed; one in which the US could no longer expect to get its own way.