Audacity of Hope

The Obama foreign policy may be a work in progress at this early stage of his presidency, but the outlines of an "Obama Doctrine" can now be seen.

It is evident in the chummy outreach at this weekend's summit to the tyrants who rule in Cuba and Venezuela. It can be seen in the repeated assertions of America's shortcomings at nearly every foreign stop he's made.

It is even more clearly visible in the justifications offered for the public release of those Justice Department memos detailing the aggressive interrogation methods used by the CIA on terror suspects in the aftermath of 9/11.

Presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs said the release of such details would not make America less safe because, "It is the use of those techniques in the eyes of the world that has made us less safe."

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said President Obama had, "changed America's image" and that "makes us stronger."

The president himself said his confessions of American guilt, "allow us to speak with greater moral force and clarity."

One senses, however, that it is not America's image that is being burnished here, but that of President Obama, who seems to have an almost limitless faith in the power of his own personal magnetism to change the world.

Having come as far as he has on the strength of his personal appeal, Obama's view may be understandable. But as the foundation of a foreign policy, it may seem an advanced case of the audacity of hope.

— Brit Hume is the senior political analyst for FOX News Channel.