Well, I thought that was terrible.

[John1956PA]

7. The press criticized Obama when he said he would consider meeting . . .

. . . a certain Mideast leader without beforehand having reached agreement on at least some substantive issue.

Having diplomats hammer out agreement on some detail before the happening of a summit has been the traditional way these events occur. In this case, no pre-summit accord on any detail was reached. What resulted was Putin stating in the post-summit presser that Russia was a good neighbor to the U.S. and that there is brotherly relationship between Russia and Ukraine. It was an opportunity for Putin to spout lies to a worldwide audience. The U.S. got nothing in return.