Iranian revolt highlights Obama's inadequacies

If you can slog through the entirety of EJ Dionne's piece you win the Gunga Din prize today. I'm not suggesting it -- life is short and time is precious. And the wall feels so hard when you bang your head against it. But a quick scan tells me that Obama is caught between a political rock and hard place, and even liberals are questioning his abilities:

It's not easy to walk the progressive path. But Obama has always said that he knows how to deal with complexity. This is his chance to prove it.

Michael Barone isn't buying the self-propagated, msm-spread image of Obama-the-Brilliant, discussed here.

I guess this (via NTC News) is supposed to be a good thing? --

U.S. officials say Obama is intent on calibrating his comments to the mood of the hour.

Read on for more analysis of Obama's handling of the Iranian revolt:

"He's playing to multiple audiences. He's talking not only to the Iranians but also the Russians and the Chinese," two key partners in the effort to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions, Drezner said. "The more ambitious and, for lack of a better word, Bush-like his language is, the more it will upset the Russians and Chinese."

The situation is indeed complex, but I thought that was always true of foreign policy. Welcome to the bigs, Barack. Too bad for us that you can't be sent back down to the minors when it becomes clear that you're not major league material.

Time will tell how well raising a finger into the wind and "steely temporizing" will work for him as the revolt escalates. Mark Steyn has pointed out the problem with assuming the "dispassionate, disinterested soul of moderation" stance: "You always have a dog in the fight, whether you know it or not."

The Hyacinth Girl wonders if Obama is able to learn from his mistakes, but she's not optimistic; that would require humility.

Victor Davis Hanson calls out for strong condemnation:

Does not Obama see that the world has been given a rare chance, thanks to brave Iranians—as if the German people had risen up in 1938 in fear of what was on the horizon . . .

Hanson goes on to give five reasons why Obama should take a strong stand, and then speculates on why he will not. As a student of history, Prof. Hanson recognizes hubris when he sees it. Here are some selected snippets but this is a must-read:

So now he waits to see who wins. And then will provide the soaring rhetoric postfacto to suggest that he was either the careful realist all along who foresaw the dissidents’ failure-or the enthusiastic moralist who always really did cheer on the mullahs’ demise. Robert Gibbs has both scripts already fed into the bookend A and B teleprompters.

Obama wants to rise above his country; but when his country is not held in disrepute (as is true among the Iranian people), he is an actor without a role.

People abroad really do prefer freedom and true constitutional government to autocratic grievance mongers who loot their country and brutalize the free. In such conditions, old-fashioned Americans, often inarticulate and perhaps clumsy, but honest in their belief in the universal appeal of human freedom, do better than all the nuanced Kennedy School intellectuals.

Obama is clueless. Hillary knows more, but not that much more (Bill knows less as his 2005 Davos disastrous encomium of Iran proved). Biden, well, is Biden. The brighter like Holbrooke serve on the second tier. In short, no one knows now to whom do you apologize? And if to no one, what then do you do? We’re back to sorta, sorta not shoot the pirates, kinda, kinda not stop the Koreans, maybe, maybe not keep renditions, tribunals, wiretaps, intercepts, and drone attacks-or why didn’t someone brief me on the problems with closing Guantanamo before I promised the world at end to our American Gulag?

His entire anti-Bush foreign policy is then in trouble.

I don't suppose we'll ever hear words like this coming from Obama's mouth:

The Iranian regime is responsible for the maiming and murder of many Americans and others who have been made its victims. The overthrow of the regime would be well deserved. We support the brave protesters who have taken to the streets of Iran to express their opposition to the regime and we wish them success in their endeavors.

Read the rest (short). H/t: AmPower.

Meanwhile, rumors swirl around the identity of Neda and the exact circumstances of her murder. But her martyrdom to Iranian freedom has already been established.

Linked by Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

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