If it is true that Putin is the most effective politician in the world, and it is by no means clear that it is, it seems to me that being the “best” among today’s major leaders is sort of like being the best baseball player in Volgograd or owning the best Indian restaurant in Tuscaloosa,: sure it must feel nice to have someone to look down on, but in the grand scheme of things you’re not particularly good at what you do and you know it. ~Mark Adomanis, very effectively ridiculing the preposterous Ralph Peters