George Soros has invested $8 billion around the world promoting free speech, civil society, and ways of making governments accountable. Noted for their early work in Eastern Europe, his Open Society Foundations grew out of a philosophical conviction: that political oppression could not co-exist with open debate over the nature of society.

Recently, the multi-billionaire hedge fund operator has found a flaw in his own reasoning, which he has shared with readers of the New York Review of Books. 

Barack Obama is in the difficult and contradictory position of being a president who wants to do good in a position that requires him ultimately to serve the U.S. economic elite and maintain America's military dominance of the planet. The outcome of the contradiction is unpredictable and depends to a large extent on whether or not those mobilized to get him elected -- especially young people -- can re-mobilize for a protracted and difficult struggle.

This contradiction is revealed when we contrast Obama's Iraq policy, for example, with his efforts to implement a progressive agenda domestically. Ironically, the latter ultimately depends on the former simply because America's wealth and government revenue depend on oil and the U.S.

The beaming face of Barack Obama -- whether surveying adoring fans on Parliament Hill or bestowing on Ottawa shopgirls an experience they can dine out on for the rest of their lives -- was oddly reminiscent of Hugh Hefner's line about feeling like a kid in the world's biggest candy store.

Ottawa may seem more like Canadian Tire than a candy store, but one could well imagine Obama thinking: And they pay me for doing this?