Wait a minute. What happened to the liberal line about how horrible it is to ignore moral wrongs in order to further our own interests? You know, complaining about our ignoring the social wrongs in Saudi Arabia just because its continued cooperation is of strategic interest to the United States?

Oh, right. That was under Republican leadership. Now ignoring moral wrongs in order to pursue what the White House considers America’s interests is an okey dokey strategy.

It means Mr Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991.

The Buddhist monk arrived in Washington on Monday for a week of meetings with Congressional leaders, celebrity supporters and interest groups, but the president will not see him until after he has made his first visit to China next month.

Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has accused the United States and other Western nations of “appeasement” toward China as its economic weight grows.

“Today, economic interests are much greater than other interests,” he said.

Mr Obama’s decision dismayed human rights and Tibetan support groups, who said he had made an unnecessary concession to the Chinese, who regard the Dalai Lama as a “splittist”, despite his calls for autonomy rather than independence for Tibet. The Chinese invaded in 1950, forcing the young leader to flee.

Republican George H.W. Bush met with the Dalai Lama. Democrat Bill Clinton met with the Dalai Lama. Republican George W. Bush met with the Dalai Lama. Democrat Barack Obama snubs the Dalai Lama to appease Beijing. Progress.

There was a time when Obama talked about pursuing the correction of moral wrongs even if the pursuit harms America’s strategic interests. You know, like he still does when it comes to enhanced interrogation techniques used on terrorists with knowledge of upcoming attacks on American soil. Heck, Obama even called for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics because of Beijing’s crackdown on Tibet.

Perhaps human rights activists will now see Obama for what he is: A hypocrite who can talk the talk but refuses to walk the walk. He’ll make you promises from morning to evening and then break it as soon as the sun goes down. He was never interested in correcting what he saw as moral wrongs. He was interested in winning the votes of people who did. He’s a political opportunist.