A New York Times story today on the EU constitution vote cites an administration official thusly, “Still, one senior administration official said the vote was worrisome because it made Europe more unpredictable, even, he said, as some factions in the administration could see it as checking the growing powerhouse across the Atlantic.” Chirac campaigned for this thing explicitly as a way to create a rival superpower to the US, and it went down to a ignominious defeat–and an administration official dubs it a worrisome development? (With a dismissive reference to factions who might see it differently?) We obviously have to tread softly here, as our editorial today points out, but this is such a wonderful opportunity to help shape a different kind of Europe, one less tightly integrated and less intrinsically hostile to American power. This is the mother of all no-brainers, but it’s not clear if the administration is going to get it.