THE CD PLAYER IS ON "REPEAT" - AT 10:53 P.M. ET:  We now have some results from the president's "historic" (not really) trip to China.  They seem to be the same results we've seen from every other trip.  Is the world telling us something?

BEIJING -- President Obama has emerged from his first trip to China with few breakthroughs on important issues, such as Iran's nuclear program or China's currency. Yet after two days of talks with the United States' biggest creditor, the administration asserted that relations between the two countries are at "at an all-time high."

Defined by this administration as "We give, they take, they smile at us.  Harmony."

While one concrete advance emerged -- that the United States may offer a target for carbon-emission cuts to boost climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month if China offers its own proposal -- it was a relatively small step for a new president who had campaigned on a promise to enact far-reaching change in U.S. diplomatic interactions.

Yeah, afraid so.  No great change.  Nothing we can "believe in."

If there was any significant change during this trip, in fact, it was in the United States' newly conciliatory and sometimes laudatory tone.

COMMENT:  Choke on that one for a minute.  Medicines are available.

The lauding of dictatorships seems to bother this new, "idealistic" administration not at all. 

Another trip, more wear on the plane, and not much to show for it.

November 17, 2009