For a guy who held a press conference everyday after being elected, someone is pretty quite now

BLANKLEY: Being president 101

Early lessons for the incoming administration

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WashingtonTimes.com

What history may judge more harshly is Mr. Obama's silence (as I write this column) on the Israeli/Hamas war. Even if he speaks by the time this column is published, he has badly mismanged his "Muslim outreach" initiative, which he described during the campaign as important, asserting that he wanted to "reboot" America's relations with the 1.4 billion Muslims. (The term "reboot" itself was an unfortunate choice - given the Muslims' disdain for the human shoe.) He went to Israel during the campaign and said - referring to Hamas rockets hitting Israel - that if such a thing happened to his daughters there is nothing he wouldn't do to stop it. That statement was clearly seen as a green light for Israel to defend itself - whether Mr. Obama intended it that way we will never know.

Then, when Israel took actions two weeks ago, Mr. Obama remained silent. The result in the Middle East was well described by the British Guardian newspaper this weekend: "Obama is losing a battle he doesn't know he's in. The president-elect's silence on the Gaza crisis is undermining his reputation in the Middle East. Barack Obama's chances of making a fresh start in US relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza. That seems hardly fair, given the president-elect does not take office until January 20. But foreign wars don't wait for Washington inaugurations." Now I, and many other conservatives, always thought Mr. Obama was being unforgivably naive in thinking he could talk us out of the clash of civilizations between radical Islam and the West.

But my views notwithstanding, given Mr. Obama's intentions, his first gratuitous words (in Israel) followed now by his loud silence seem rather obviously destined to undercut his own intentions. If he intends to shrewdly lead the world, he should understand that images of him golfing in Hawaii while saying nothing as Palestinians are being bombed to death are going to be both seen and condemned in the Middle East that he aspires to lead to better days.

Perhaps, like Jack Kennedy's Bay of Pigs fiasco, this will be an early lesson for Mr. Obama in being president 101.

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Hey 44, you talked almost everyday since being elected, where are you now when there is a tough call to make?

Scandal Meter:

3 of 10 | Not so much a scandal but the lack of leadership is making people start to people notice.