Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez were just the best of friends last weekend at that Summit of the Americas, shaking hands and exchanging books and whatnot. But this does not bode well for the American public. As former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says, being too cozy with a commited anti-American leftist is not a good idea for our nation's morale. But it's that just like America? Ronald Reagan shaking hands with Mikhail Gorbachev, Richard Nixon meeting with Mao Zedong... I guess it's not a show a weakness so much as a realization that we must deal with our biggest critics in at least a cordial way when meeting them face to face. But Chavez, being the attention whore that he is, gave Obama a book critical of the U.S. involvment in South America,. Shame Obama didn't have a copy of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" to shove back int Chavez's hands. That would have been priceless. What message does this meeting send? I'm not sure yet, but I'll keep my eyes on how this plays out politically. Last thing we need is dictator-for-life Chavez's position being legitimized in the public arena. –Stephen Payne, Editor, Oil and Gas Investor This Week; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; spayne@hartenergy.com