BLOW TO OBAMA - AT 7:36 A.M. ET:  From AP, Moscow:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev indicated he would not increase pressure on Iran over its nuclear program in exchange for the United States backing off on plans to deploy missile-defense elements in Eastern Europe.

"I don't think any trade-offs are possible in this respect," Medvedev said in a transcript of an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. aired Sunday.

The former US administration said putting the anti-missile system in Europe was necessary to block possible attacks by so-called rogue states such as Iran, but Russia says the system is aimed at undermining its own defenses.

COMMENT:  One of the first groveling steps of the Obama administration was to knife our East European allies in the back by hinting that Washington would drop the anti-missile system, which these allies embraced, in exchange for Russian pressure on Iran to curb its nuclear program.  You see how successful this trick was.  We antagonized our allies and made them doubt our reliability, and got zero in return.

March 30, 2009