THE OBAMA WE'VE COME TO KNOW – AT 10:14 P.M. ET:  As we count down to Sunday, High Noon in the health debate, Peggy Noonan reflects on Obama and his choir.  Noonan has been in good form recently, after a dry spell, and I think her remarks find the truth and hit it hard:

Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he's having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he's been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America's back and been America's friend.

How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid's stuff.

How true, how true, ah yes.

You could see the startled looks on the faces of reporters as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had the grace to look embarrassed, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The president "regrets the delay"—the trip is rescheduled for June—but "passage of the health insurance reform is of paramount importance." Indonesia must be glad to know it's not.

After a week of bashing Israel, what's one or two more allies? 

Noonan then goes on to discuss the rather stunning interview Obama gave to Bret Baier of Fox News, which the White House tried to banish from the immediate Universe only months ago.  Guess they decided they needed the Fox audience.

Baier was tough, respectful of course, but determined not to do the traditional puff piece of the in-the-tank mainstream media.  And the president was less than impressive, or effective.  He overflowed with no information.  Examine the following for the depth, knowledge and subtlety displayed by the leader of the Free World:

"Mr. President, you couldn't tell me what the special deals are that are in or not today."

Mr. Obama: "I just told you what was in and what was not in."

Mr. Baier: "Is Connecticut in?" He was referring to the blandishments—polite word—meant to buy the votes of particular senators.

Mr. Obama: "Connecticut—what are you specifically referring to?"

Mr. Baier: "The $100 million for the hospital? Is Montana in for the asbestos program? Is—you know, listen, there are people—this is real money, people are worried about this stuff."

Mr. Obama: "And as I said before, this—the final provisions are going to be posted for many days before this thing passes."

Mr. Baier pressed the president on his statement as a candidate for the presidency that a 50-plus-one governing mentality is inherently divisive. "You can't govern" that way, Sen. Obama had said. Is the president governing that way now? Mr. Obama did not really answer.

Not exactly a Lincoln.

And so it ends, with a health-care vote expected this weekend. I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn't worth it—worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide. What has been lost is so vivid, what has been gained so amorphous, blurry and likely illusory. Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to Demon Pass.

COMMENT:  Will Obama learn?  What has he learned in his first year?  About the same amount that Jimmah Carter learned in four years.  We know how that turned out in the 1980 election. 

Many warned, during the 2008 campaign, that Mr. Obama was not ready for prime time, or even mid-afternoon.  The many were ignored by the few in the mainstream media, who assured us that gods don't act like mere mortals.  Sometimes I wish this one did.

March 18, 2010