BRING IN THE EGO CONTROL TEAM – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama is in London being feted by the Brits, who are showing extreme graciousness, considering Mr. Obama's insults toward Britain in his first year in office.  It's apparent that The One realizes that the special relationship with the Brits is very popular in his own home country, which I believe is the United States.

But Obama pushes it a bit far, and brings British Prime Minister David Cameron with him, in a remarkable piece of ego-exercising  that has created considerable buzz across the internet.  From USA Today:

President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron kick off two days of diplomacy this morning by pledging to work against repressive regimes in the Middle East -- by force if necessary.

In a sternly worded column in The Times of London, the two leaders liken the effort to free Arab people from authoritarianism to the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 1980s.

They liken their personal efforts to two leaders who came before them: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

"We will stand with those who want to bring light into dark, support those who seek freedom in place of repression, aid those laying the building blocks of democracy," they wrote.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.  When you start comparing yourself to Reagan and Thatcher, you'd better have the goods.  I see only a discount store.  As Sinatra might have said, leave us we should analyze:

First, there is a world of difference between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.  Reagan had been a stalwart for freedom for many years.  Obama openly mocked the democracy agenda of George W. Bush.

Reagan embraced American allies who embraced freedom and free markets.  Obama spent a good part of his life hangin' with leftist college professors and self-proclaimed intellectuals who opposed both.

And there is a world of difference between the Cold War and the Arab spring.  In the Cold War we fought a sustained multi-decade battle, finally bringing down the Soviet Union and replacing it with true democracies in Eastern Europe.  The Arab spring is a brief period of justified rebellion, but we're really not sure who's doing the rebelling or who will have the real power, especially as Arab countries have no democratic tradition.  We wish the Arab people well.  We want to see them free of their oppressors.  But it's a very different situation from the one we faced in Eastern Europe.

One of the problems with Obama is that he doesn't know much history, at least accurate history.  It always shows.  The statement that he and Cameron wrote is noble in intent, and we applaud the dedication it demonstrates.  But we hope these two keep their eyes open, and realize that the Arab spring can quickly turn into an Arab blizzard if the wrong people get the missiles.

May 25, 2011