On Sept. 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. Days later, the Russian army attacked Poland from the East. Weeks after that, the world learned that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin had a “secret” agreement to divide Poland between them.

On March 26 of this year in Seoul, South Korea, President Barack Obama whispered, telling Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin that he (Obama) would have more flexibility after November’s election to deal with contentious issues such as missile defense.

“This is my last election,” Obama said. “After my election, I have more flexibility.”

I do not like the idea that after the election we might discover that somebody wants to harm the United States, as Poland was harmed, by making secret deals that the president knows U.S. citizens would not approve of, if they were told the truth.

But after the election it would be too late.