OBAMA BASHES BUSH - AGAIN - AT 7:17 A.M. ET:

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- President Barack Obama says it will take time for the world to see how he is leading America in a different direction from his predecessor.

Obama reminded students in Turkey that he opposed the war in Iraq that was started by then-president George W. Bush.

But Obama also said Tuesday that as president he must withdraw U.S. troops in a careful way that doesn't lead Iraq to ''a complete collapse into violence.''

COMMENT:  No, I don't think it will take much time, Mr. President.  Firm resolution has given way to mush.  We can begin there.

Also, President Bush didn't spend his first months in office bashing his predecessor, and never did so on foreign soil.  This may play well for a time, but I suspect more alert foreign ministries around the world wonder whether they can depend on an American president who has so much negative to say about his own country. 

Sometimes the president seems not to realize that he's won the election and that he's not living in the leftist precincts of Hyde Park, Chicago, any longer.

April 7, 2009