Bullshit from the left

This is really unusual. I'm a big fan of Joe Conason, but he goes off the rails with this:

But it was obvious that Clinton would not have participated in such a public encounter, witnessed by scores of people at the Putin party, unless the White House and the State Department had approved in advance.

Obvious that the Big Dog has enough impulse control to take direction from the Obama White House? Uh, Joe, possible, maybe, but not obvious.