Ron Hart: Putin plays chess, Obama plays checkers

As Barack Obama and Congress publicly debate what engraving style to use on the “Save the Date” card they will send to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (fully telegraphing our unnecessary military action), Vladimir Putin chuckles.

Bombing Syria was about Obama saving face after the public ultimatum he issued. It’s also about Putin – those two preening narcissists do not get along. Ever since the dust-up over NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden being given asylum in Russia, they have been in a diss-ing match. Their testosterone-fueled tempest culminated last week at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.

The tension is clear. Obama intentionally arrived 30 minutes late at a dinner Putin hosted at the summit. In photo ops, Obama and Putin sit across from each other with uncomfortable smiles and brooding silence. It looks like a holiday gathering at a relative’s house.

There was an awkward moment when the G-20 emcee requested a few words from the ruthless ex-Marxist spymaster and calculating assassin; both Putin and Obama rose to speak.

These two leaders do have something in common: They both like to blame problems on others. Putin blamed Snowden’s being stuck in Russia on Obama for revoking his visa so he could not travel. Putin might eventually release Snowden, but only if he then can hunt him.

Putin has other provocations to his credit. He has said that gay athletes participating in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia will be arrested. This is bad news for mankind but great news for the world’s two straight male figure skaters. Just to make the dilemma greater for the men skaters, the figure skating finals are scheduled on the same night as the Tony Awards.

The Obama administration let it leak that their like-minded “redistribution of wealth” ideologue, Putin, has amassed a personal net worth of $69 billion as a result of gaining control of political office. That makes Fidel Castro’s $1 billion look paltry. There is no telling how much money these communist leaders would have if they were not all about “sharing the wealth.” A socialist political figure has not shaken down businesses for that big a piece of their action since Al Gore.

Gore made money with his promise of political protection for companies from his environmental alarmist extortion act. The one “inconvenient truth” in the green energy business is that it uses only recycled politicians as its source of power.

The hypocrisy here is that Putin got his wealth through political office, just like Obama. Neither has created private-sector jobs nor risked his own money in business. Both men are shakedown artists. Like a Mafia protection racket, they take money for not hurting you. Support Obama, like the unions do, and you are exempted from Obamacare. Work for him in Washington, and he rewards you by not requiring you to participate in Obamacare. There is no better favor he can bestow on you than to exempt you from his regulations.

The way Putin gets his money is that, if you do not give him his cut, he will accuse your business of tax-evasion and just take it. If you cross Obama and cause him problems, like the Tea Parties did, he will send the IRS or Eric Holder after you. Both leaders use the blunt force of big government to get what they want.

There is a Russian word for a person who defies Putin: “missing.”

Neither man likes free speech when it is used against him. Obama used his power to spy on a Fox News reporter. Last year, a Russian all-woman punk band sang songs critical of Putin. He had his goons arrest them, accusing them of “hooliganism.” Is that even a thing? I’d think “hooliganism” carries a stiffer sentence than horseplay and tomfoolery, but not as harsh as shenanigans.

Putin gains in popularity as he outfoxes Obama. The result is that Obama has done what no other president has done: make Putin look reasonable by comparison. Both like to ramble on self-righteously, but the ex-KGB officer Putin is playing chess, and our community organizer is playing checkers. By Russia getting Syria to say it agrees to place its “chemical weapons under international control,” Putin checkmated Obama again.

And just to think, this whole tension began when Obama and Hillary Clinton implied that Putin’s United Russia Party cheated to manufacture votes to win his election. Given that Obama and Hillary are products of the ballot-box-stuffing Chicago political machine, that was actually meant as a compliment.

Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator. Email Ron@RonaldHart.com or at visit RonaldHart.com