That's what ABC's Jake Tapper calls Obama in this report:
On Thursday Obama told the Orlando Sentinel that he would meet with Chavez and "one of the obvious high priorities in my talks with President Hugo Chavez would be the fermentation of anti-American sentiment in Latin America, his support of FARC in Colombia and other issues he would want to talk about." OK, so a strong declaration that Chavez is supporting FARC, which Obama intends to push him on. But then on Friday he said any government supporting FARC should be isolated. "We will shine a light on any support for the FARC that comes from neighboring governments," he said in a speech in Miami. "This behavior must be exposed to international condemnation, regional isolation, and - if need be - strong sanctions. It must not stand." So he will meet with the leader of a country he simultaneously says should be isolated? Huh?
Tapper also offers a litany of Obama's more trivial recent gaffes, but this business with Chavez is deeply troubling. As Matthew Yglesias writes in the new issue of the Atlantic, Obama entire approach to foreign policy is the product of an " early gaffe"--the pledge at last summer's YouTube debate to meet, without preconditions, with the leaders of rogue regimes. This pledge was immediately ridiculed by both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, but Obama stuck to it--until now. While Obama still insists he will meet these leaders without preconditions, he's carving out all kinds of wiggle room. He emphasizes the uncertainty of the future (we don't know who the leader of Iran will be a year from now) and the need for " preparations." In some instances the preparations sound identical to preconditions, as in Obama's policy toward Cuba. As Obama explained in Florida last week, talks would be contingent on Raul Castro submitting to an agenda including "freedom of religion, of press, travel, and to organize politically." In other words, the preconditions that have precluded presidential talks ever since Raul's brother first seized power nearly 50 years ago. Even Joe Klein, Obama's staunchest supporter, has come to rely on words like "muddy" and "fuzzy" to describe the enormous gaffe that Yglesias calls Obama's "accidental foreign policy." Tapper mocks the inconsistency on Chavez, but the same contradictions exist in Obama's policy towards Iran and Cuba. Will he meet with these leaders or won't he? And what will be on the agenda? Nobody knows.