President Obama’s trip to Southeast Asia will take him to Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma. Relations with Thailand and Cambodia are relatively static, thanks to the former’s historic alliance with the U.S. and despite the latter’s terrible human rights record. Burma, on the other hand, is in the midst of change, with the beginnings of a potential transition to democracy.

By visiting Burma now, Obama will be spending valuable political capital even before Burma has taken vital steps – including settling internal ethnic issues and addressing constitutional provisions that give the military inordinate power. Not only has Burma failed to release all political prisoners unconditionally, it appears to be engaging in a kind of shell game. None of the 452 detainees released on November 15, just in time for Obama’s visit, are political prisoners, according to an advocacy group. Yesterday, Samantha Power of the National Security Council told reporters that the administration believed “at least several hundred political prisoners” remained behind bars.