TIMING IS EVERYTHING - AT 7:58 P.M. ET:  We've been lucky at different times in our history to have the right man in the White House during a crisis.  At other time, like the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80, we had exactly the wrong man.

Peggy Noonan once said of Ronald Reagan that he know how to be president, and we knew exactly what Noonan meant.  He had a style and a sense of timing that matched our expectations of what a president should do and say under difficult circumstances.  His "expert" advisers, including Colin Powell, opposed his declaring, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" when the president spoke in Berlin in 1987.  But Reagan sensed the moment, and, fortunately for us, seized it.

Now President Obama faces an international crisis over Iran.  Does he know how to be president?  If his meek performance over the last five days is any example, the answer is clear.

Many Republicans criticized John McCain during last year's election fight, and sometimes for good reason.  But the one thing we knew about McCain is that, in a crisis, he'd know how to be president.  That instinct of knowing what is called for has been on display in the Senate this week, where McCain has spoken out like a president, whereas Obama has spoken out like a senator.  Andrew Malcolm of the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket, links a McCain Senate statement here.  Well worth watching and listening.

June 22, 2009