The O'Hanlon Primary

Your favorite think tanker and mine turns to Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent of The Washington Times, to channel his amped-up attacks on Barack Obama:

Michael O'Hanlon, a Democratic defense and national-security adviser at the Brookings Institution, also finds Obama's approach dangerous and sophomoric.

The freshman senator's eagerness for one-on-one talks with tin-pot dictators "would cheapen the value of presidential summits," O'Hanlon told me.

"You don't want a president using his time being lied to by foreign leaders. Hillary would be much more pragmatic. She has suggested midlevel talks with Iran, for example," he said. "Obama would look weak, and Hillary would not look weak."

Anyone who's pissed O'Hanlon off this much is okay in my book. However, as the correspondent who brought this article to my attention observed, this seems like an odd time and place to go after Obama so severely if the intention is really to earn Clinton's admiration. It looks in some ways more like pre-positioning for pro-McCain orientation in the general election.