President Obama has spent this week bingeing on diplomacy but he cannot be drunk on success. There’s very little to show for his days in Europe other than a few joint statements that were forgotten as soon as the press releases were handed out.

Friday will be different and not because it will deliver a diplomatic triumph. President Obama will meet with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz at a moment when the relationship between the two nations is worse than it has been since the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Going into the meeting, Obama is at a considerable disadvantage that results directly from his own policies. The Saudis look around the Middle East and what they see scares them.