One likely area for controversy is Senator Barack Obama's suggestion that as president he would meet with America's enemies, including North Korean, Cuban and Iranian leaders, in talks without preconditions. This has already exposed him to accusations of naivety. Obama did not back down, and responded by hailing this policy as something that both distinguished him from Hillary and put him "ahead of the curve" in diplomacy.

"When I first said that, there were these gasps and a bunch of the pundits wrote that this was a terrible gaffe and Hillary really put him in his place and this and that. And then they were shocked when I said the same thing the next day, and a week later, and two weeks later," Obama almost gleefully told New Hampshire voters in Exeter last December.

"Now I'm glad to see, now suddenly George Bush is writing letters to Kim Jung Ill, and North Korea," Obama added. "So maybe I'm six months or nine months ahead of the curve. And I will keep on making these arguments and maybe other folks will decide they make sense." But now he has defined a limit to his list of acceptable interlocutors, stressing that his willingness to meet with foes "does not include Hamas." "You can't negotiate with somebody who does not recognize the right of a country to exist so I understand why Israel doesn't meet with Hamas," Obama told reporters during a campaign stop in San Antonio, Texas.

There is a problem here. Just like Hamas, Iran does not recognize Israel. But Obama will talk to Tehran, but not to Hamas, although it is an open secret that Iran supplies arms, cash and other support to Hamas. The logic in Obama's position here is not easy to discern, and opens him to the charge that he prepared to modify his principles when it suits him.

He has already suffered from this, after his top economic adviser, University of Chicago Professor Austan Goolsbee, had a conversation with the Canadian consul-general in Chicago, who was deeply worried by Obama's pledge to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Canadian diplomat who took notes of this talk write that Goolsbee had reassured the Canadians that this anti-NAFTA rhetoric should not be taken seriously and amounted to political posturing for the Ohio primary. The revelation of this conversation just before Election Day probably helped Hillary Clinton to her decisive win in that state.

Despite his relative youth and inexperience, Senator Obama is an accomplished and highly articulate politician. But he is starting to get himself into difficulty, just as the voters are taking a second, more critical look. Venturing into the politics of the Middle East without forethought could be almost as risky as talking to one's enemies without the most careful preparation.