The practised cynicism of the "serious" commentator.

Listen to the cynicism of Joe Scarborough in this clip regarding Obama's recent comments regarding nuclear disarmament.

"We're going to ban nuclear weapons and on the dollar we are going to put 'turn that frown upside down.'"

Such practised cynicism is always seen as the mark of a "serious" commentator. Scarborough is ignoring two things here. Firstly, that nuclear disarmament is our duty under the NNPT, and secondly, that Obama did not go out blindly on a limb here.

American statesman Henry Kissinger made a secret visit to Moscow to persuade the Kremlin to join a US proposal to slash the number of nuclear warheads on both sides, reports The Daily Telegraph.

American Vice-President Joseph Biden and Russian Vice-PM Sergey Ivanov will report back to their respective governments on the issue.

Henry Kissinger is expected to make a report on a “nuclear zero option” on the very first day of the conference.

Kissinger has already held talks with the Russians over this and you can bet that they are willing to meet Obama at least halfway before Obama would have made such a public statement.

And yet, oh, how Joe scoffs. Did he scoff when his great hero, Ronald Reagan, proposed such a thing?

In 1986 at the Reykjavik summit, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, both passionate about nuclear disarmament, shocked deterrence experts with an unimaginable proposal – total nuclear disarmament. “It would be fine with me if we eliminated all nuclear weapons,” said Reagan. “We can do that,” replied Gorbachev, “Let’s eliminate them. We can eliminate them.”

Reagan's proposal would be seen by Joe as great statesmanship, but when Obama attempts it he writes it off as farcical. Their cynicism is so deeply ingrained that they imagine it makes them "realists".

Tags: Scarborough, Obama, nuclear disarmament, Russia, US, Kissinger