With Friends Like Obama...

As Chris Sands writes at Huffington Post Canada about the Obama administration's hostile action on the Keystone pipeline, with friends like President Obama, who needs enemies?

[Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper has been a great friend to Obama: supportive of the U.S. global warming approach at Copenhagen and Cancun, ponying up billions to support the auto bailouts, supporting the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, and offering to sell renewable hydroelectric power as well as oil and gas to energize an American economic recovery. This from a Conservative whose political friends in the United States can't stand Obama.

But as many have discovered, it doesn't pay to be Obama's friend. Just ask Britain's Gordon Brown, Spain's José Luis Zapatero, Australia's Kevin Rudd, Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu or Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.

Why stop with foreigners? Here in the United States, the list of disappointed friends includes the labour unions (no card check legislation, and three free trade deals passed last month), Hispanics (no effort on immigration reform and deportations are up), African Americans (hardest hit by the recession), the peace movement (drone killings multiply and Guantanamo remains open), Wall Street (bailed out and then scapegoated), Occupy protestors, and environmentalists (no cap and trade, no carbon tax).