How Long Until Obama Throws the Dalai Lama Under the Bus?

You know if push comes to shove, a putative President Obama won't do a damn thing to help the Tibetans, though he's at least paying lip service.

He pretends to be sorry for missing the Dalai Lama when he was in the U.S. last week, but he had the Egobama World Tour of Self-Glorification to take care of.

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has sent a letter to the Dalai Lama backing the rights of the "people of Tibet", a spokesman for the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader said.

"I wanted to take the opportunity to reassure you of my highest respect and support for you, your mission and your people at this critical time,'' Obama said in the letter, whose receipt was confirmed by the Dalai Lama's office yesterday.

Obama's Republican presidential rival John McCain met the Dalai Lama to discuss Tibet last week in Aspen, Colorado, where the spiritual leader addressed a Tibetan cultural seminar.

Obama, who has been on a whirlwind foreign trip meeting world leaders, expressed regret in the letter that "our respective travel schedules will prevent us from meeting" during the Dalai Lama's visit to the United States.

But he said he hoped the letter and the meeting with McCain "will make clear that American attention to and backing for the people of Tibet is widespread and transcends the divisions of our political contest''.

The Secretary of the Dalai Lama Chhime R Chhoekyapa confirmed the Dalai Lama received Obama's letter sent on July 24 but declined to make any comment.