American presidents engage in summitry when they have reason to believe they will be rewarded by domestic constituencies for averting whatever apocalyptic crisis was deemed worthy of a summit. The realpolitik approach to summitry would not squander the prestige of the office and the minuscule attention span of the MSM on penny ante crises. Too much personal Presidential involvement in what should be the business of American diplomats is every bit as bad as an LBJ personally approving targets to be hit in Viet Nam.

“Only Nixon could go to China.” — Captain Spock, star date 9521.6