OH DEAR, OH DEAR – AT 8:09 P.M. ET:   Supreme leader has finished.  And maybe America is finished.    You know, he speaks beautifully.  No one denies that.  He's a powerful, effective speaker, reminding us of another Illinois politician, Adlai Stevenson.  Stevenson was the darling of intellectuals in the 1950s, and became more darling as he went down to defeat twice at the hands of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Stevenson spoke beautifully and said nothing.  Obama speaks beautifully and says a great deal.  The trouble is, it's so garbled and self-contradictory that you'd need the best codebreakers of World War II to figure out what he means.

That, by the way, seems to be the consensus among the pundits we've briefly checked in the minutes after Obama finished his speech.

On the one hand, Obama declared what Wolf Blitzer correctly characterized as "the Obama Doctrine."  We intervened to prevent a massacre, and we're proud of our leadership.  On the other hand, Obama then told us that our leadership role is ending.

So, does this mean we intervene whenever there's a threat of a massacre?  What about Syria, where a massacre may be happening?  What about Iran, where another massacre can occur at any time?  When does the Obama Doctrine apply?

And Brit Hume pointed out that if our leadership was so important in preventing a mass tragedy, why is that leadership not important now, when our leadership role is handed to NATO?  Did we suddenly lose our leadership skills?  Do we really think the Europeans have become enlightened?

Oh, by the way, Obama actually came close in this speech, and it was a fine moment, to endorsing the concept of American exceptionalism.  He said that one reason for our intervention in Libya was "who we are."  We are not, he said, like other nations, who can turn our backs in the face of evil.  IN OTHER WORDS, OBAMA SEEMED TO BE SAYING, WE'RE BUSH!

Yes, the president finally acknowledged that are values may set us apart from Belgium.  I suspect some of his supporters on the left have now fainted, and will be taken to Obamacare emergency rooms to be treated for hearing unclean thoughts.  The treatment is a dose of stem cells from Dennis Kucinich.

But, on balance, the president delivered an eloquent but confused speech.  At the end, we really didn't understand what comes next, and how this precedent applies in the future.  That is what strategic thinking is about.  Only the Bushian parts were good.

March 28, 2011