Obama Finally Weighs In On Iran...With All The Strength Of A Wet Noodle

One of the biggest knocks on Barack Obama during the campaign was his inexperience. That is, he had none. He'd never run a business, he'd led an organization, he'd never done anything significant in a legislature. This lack of experience translates into indecisiveness and waffling on many issues, and this tendency began coming out as he committed flub after flub after flub.

A few months ago I wrote this:

The most disturbing thing here is that this was an instance where there really (from what we know) was no wrongdoing, and Obama could have been completely open about it with the American public. Instead, he chose to lie about what happened. For a guy who promised transparency and a new kind of politics, this is not the most lustrous start. To make matters worse, he's not going to get a second chance when it comes to critical foreign policy decisions once he's sitting in the Oval Office. If he says or does the wrong thing when dealing with Iran, Russia, or any of the numerous other hostile nations, he could seriously damage relations or, worst case, potentially set off a war with a purely rookie mistake.

A few weeks later came this:

Obama's first two weeks have filled with nothing but incompetence, indecisiveness, and weakness. There are plenty of countries around the world who are already preparing to test the resolve of our fledgling President, and I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty. When you're in a state legislature, you can vote present and get away with it. When you're one of a hundred Senators, you can usually side with the consensus and escape. When you're in the Oval Office, it's awfully lonely, and you don't get a second chance on most of these decisions.

Apparently, Obama was afraid to take the incorrect first answer on the Iranian elections, so he decided to hang out for a few days to see what other people said first, thereby eliminating the need for a second chance to get things right. Keep those previous statements in mind as you watch his response to the violence breaking out in Iran right now:

This is shameful, pitiful, and spineless all at the same time. 'Deeply troubled' is the best he can do? I have not posted pictures or videos of what is happening in Iran, but all you have to do is run a Google search and you'll see just how violent and bloody things are over there. Students are being dragged from their dorms and beaten. Women are being beaten because they had the audacity to want freedom. And he's troubled'?! He can't even officially condemn the violent suppression of democracy in action:

On Saturday, the White House was merely “monitoring” the situation, press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. On Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden said he had “doubts” about the election. And on Monday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. is “deeply troubled” by events in Iran but stopped short of condemning them.

“I haven’t used that word, ‘condemn,’” he told the State Department press corps. “We need to see how things unfold.”

The GOP is finally showing some fight:

“The administration’s silence in the face of Iran’s brutal suppression of democratic rights represents a step backwards for homegrown democracy in the Middle East,” said Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called on Obama to condemn the elections and drop his plans to engage with Iran.

“Initial reports by, quote, ‘administration officials’ are that they say they’re not going to change their policy of dialogue,” McCain said. “It’s obvious that this was a rigged election and depriving the people of their democratic rights.”

Hot Air says this:

High drama here as the president calls the Iranian government a “ticking time bomb” that must be dealt with now if America’s future is to be secure. No no, just kidding; that’s what he said about health care. Here we get a hard dose of Hopenchange caution-speak, acknowledging that the protesters have “inspired” Americans and that we respect Iran’s right to decide its own fate but that we’ll continue to pursue “tough” diplomacy with the regime on nukes no matter how odious Ahmadinejad might be.

Fun fact: Whereas The One was “shocked and outraged” by the murder of George Tiller, the most he can muster here for mass beatings and cold-blooded killings across Iran is that he’s “troubled.” Make of it what you will.

The President of the United States is traditionally called the leader of the free world, but that is clearly no longer the case.

Sadly, it is the Iranian people -- who want nothing more than freedom, the very thing for which America is supposed to stand -- who will bear the brunt of Obama's indecisiveness. Not that he can actually influence the Iranian leadership or election results, of course, but there are plenty of things he could be doing to at least lead international pressure in stopping the violence against innocent people.

And the American people know it:

Note well: The poll was conducted before The One’s radio silence on Iran’s meltdown.

A FOX News poll released Monday finds more than two-thirds of Americans say Obama has not been tough enough on North Korea (69 percent), while some 15 percent think his actions have been “about right” and 3 percent think he has been too tough…

On Iran, the findings are almost identical: 66 percent overall say Obama has not been tough enough, including 57 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents.

Barack Obama's foreign policy is disastrous on a scale only rivaled by his disastrous domestic economic policy.

There's my two cents.