Barack Obama Is No Jimmy Carter. He's Richard Nixon.(International Edition; THE NEW REALISM)

Byline: Michael Freedman

Republicans have been trying to link Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter ever since he started his presidential campaign, and they're still at it. After Obama recently shook hands with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, GOP ideologue Newt Gingrich said the president looked just like Carter--showing the kind of "weakness" that keeps the "aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators" licking their chops.

But Obama is no Carter. Carter made human rights the cornerstone of his foreign policy, while the Obama team has put that issue on the back burner. In fact, Obama sounds more like another 1970s president: Richard Nixon. Both men inherited the White House from swaggering Texans, whose overriding sense of mission fueled disastrous wars that tarnished America's image. Obama is a staunch realist, like Nixon, eschewing fuzzy democracy-building and focusing on advancing national interests. "Obama is cutting back on the idea that we're going to have Jeffersonian democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else," says Robert Dallek, author of the 2007 book, "Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power."

Nixon met the enemy (Mao) to advance U.S. interests, and now Obama is reaching out to rivals like Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the same reason. "The willingness to engage in dialogue with Iran is very ...