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The President’s failure to attend the celebrations is of a piece with his refusal to use the power of the Presidency to advance political liberties around the world. Perhaps we shouldn’t have expected Barack Obama to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, when he wouldn’t meet with the Dalai Lama when the latter was in Washington, DC in October. Perhaps we shouldn’t have expected Barack Obama to help celebrate the event that led to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe when he won’t speak up on behalf of Iranian dissidents, for fear of angering the Iranian regime.