Wes Clark, in his infamous Face the Nation interview: “In the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk. It’s a matter of gauging your opponents, and it’s a matter of being held accountable.”

Indeed. Nothing says “understanding risk and gauging your opponents” like making $20,000 in personal loans to your campaign and putting some of your campaign expenses on your personal credit cards, in order to finance a bid to take on a five-term incumbent in a Democratic House primary after four years in the state legislature when your name recognition is at 11 percent and approval rating is at 8 percent, and your opponent’s name recognition is about 90 percent and he has an approval rating at 70 percent.

(After that careful risk assessment and opposition gauging, Congressman Bobby Rush beat Obama, 61 percent to 30 percent.)

Based on this previous record in these skills, it seems reasonable to predict President Obama will be invading mainland China around 2012.