Politics | Barack Obama Dictator Cat Remains Out of the Bag Spur-of-the-moment 'absurdity' burdens Obama's candidacy By Jonas Oransky Posted May 23, 2008 1:51 PM CDT Copied Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a town hall meeting at B'Nai Tora Congregation of Boca Raton in Boca Raton, Fla., Thursday, May 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Barack Obama was speaking off the cuff last summer when he deemed President Bush’s refusal to meet with dictators “a disgrace,” but “what started as a gaffe became policy,” Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post. "By now, it has become doctrine." And whatever it's called, he writes, "It remains today what it was on the day he blurted it out: an absurdity." “No one is debating the need for contacts,” Krauthammer allows, pausing briefly before continuing to excoriate the candidate. "The debate is over the stupidity of elevating rogue states and their tyrants, easing their isolation, and increasing their leverage by granting them unconditional meetings with the president of the world's superpower." Read These Next A space capsule carrying ashes of 160 people crashed in the ocean. The death toll in the Texas floods has risen to 27, including 9 kids. See the best BBQ cities in the US. Iraq's national game of deception brings out the best bluffers. Report an error