THE PRESIDENT AND IRAN - AT 9:30 P.M. ET:  The president was a bit stronger on the Iran revolt at his news conference today, then went out of his way, in answering questions, to insist that he's been entirely consistent all along.  He gave a poor performance.  Whenever Obama is cornered, he tends to break out in a kind of "nobody knows the trouble I've seen" rhetoric, suggesting that none of the reporters can understand that presidents must do things differently from mere mortals.  We can be tough on the press here, as you know, but asking a president why it took him so long to take a hard stand against the Iranian thugs is entirely appropriate, and the president might have conceded that his first statements may, in the absence of more detailed news reports, have been too cautious.  I guess a messiah can never admit error.

One of the amusing things about all this is that there's been a major-league gang-up on John McCain, who's been goading Obama all week to be firmer, stronger, more Reagan-like.  Even Joe Scarborough joined, this morning, in the criticism of McCain, making the wild, unsustainable charge that McCain was putting Iranian lives in jeopardy.  But now that Obama has come much closer in his public utterance to what McCain wanted, what do these same McCain bashers say?

Still, closer is not pitch-perfect, which should be the standard in a crisis like this.  Ronald Reagan understood.  Jack Kennedy, at the Cuban Missile Crisis, understood.  FDR, in responding to Pearl Harbor, understood.  Even George W. Bush, in his speech to Congress after 9-11, understood.  Barack Obama lacks that instinct, and it is damaging him.  The American people expect their president to behave in a certain manner, even if there are diplomatic risks.  We don't have royalty and he is our chief of state.  This week we had a little too much Carter, not enough Reagan.  Carter got the Nobel Peace Prize from some Norwegian legislators.  Reagan wound up in the top ranks of presidents.

June 23, 2009   Permalink   

UPDATE - AT 6:03 P.M. ET:  I'm writing this from a large conference room at the Writers Guild of America, right across the street, in New York, from CBS News.  I can feel the bias.

There's a seminar about to start on the new technology.  I'll be interested in how it's being used to get information out of Iran.  I'll be back later, and give you any details that seem important.

June 23, 2009