The day after Barack Obama’s election to the presidency, Russia Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev delivered a speech threatening missile deployment to Russia’s border near Poland if the United States moves forward with its missile defense plan against Iran in Poland and the Czech Republic. Peter Brookes wrote in the New York Post today that Obama’s response lacked spine :

A few days after the Medvedev speech, a senior Obama aide came out after a phone call between the president-elect and Polish President Lech Kaczynski saying that Obama had “made no commitment on” missile defense.

Ugh. That’s not a certain retreat by Washington in the face of Moscow’s threats, but it’s a very troubling start for the Obama team on a key national-security issue.

Going wobbly caused heartburn in Warsaw and Prague, where both governments went to the mat to get approval for the missile-defense deal – and glee in Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang. What rogue doesn’t love a whiff of wobbliness?

Well, Obama isn’t the president yet, and President Bush has a couple months yet to “interact” with the Russians. But it had to be clear that Medvedev was testing the waters for the next administration.

But the issue isn’t just bullying – there’s the policy, too. This system is designed to defend against the Iranian missile and nuclear threat – which is growing fast.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s leader, sent Obama his congratulations after the election, which Obama didn’t acknowledge. Instead, he condemned Iran’s nuclear program and the government’s support of terrorists. How does Obama rank so far on the spine barometer?