The American Spectator

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There's been an interesting back-and-forth today over at Contentions about the Annapolis Conference. Noah Pollak more or less takes Jeff Emanuel's view -- that the Bush administration has taken a dramatic wrong turn. John Podhoretz is more sanguine:

I discern, in the end, very little change [in US policy], despite the worries. The open evidence so far indicates that the low-expectations summit has in fact met its low expectations, with the "lots of other nations present" business proving essentially meaningless except as a bragging point for the diplomats who got them there and a shopping opportunity for them and their wives at outlet malls and Tysons Corner. That doesn't mean the State Department wouldn't like it otherwise. But that doesn't seem to be the story of this summit. If we've seen the worst of Annapolis - and I grant you we may not have; we won't know for a few days - I think we can actually breathe a sigh of relief.

That seems right to me. As far as I can tell, this exercise on the Chesapeake is worthless, but ultimately inconsequential.

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