THE GRAND CONTRADICTION – AT 3:52 P.M. ET:  It might be wise for President Obama to contemplate the virtues of silence. 

In trying to explain away the Massachusetts massacre, the president, in one interview, conceded that he'd lost the connection with the American people because "we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people..."

Yeah.  Problem is, that contradicts what Obama said in another interview.  It wasn't that he was so busy getting stuff done, it was that, well, he kinda misjudged how hard things would be, so stuff wasn't getting done:

Getting the Israelis and Palestinians to agree to negotiate, or even to agree to the framework in which negotiations will take place, "is just really hard," US President Barack Obama said in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday, as the president was completing his first year in office.

Gee, I didn't know.  I thought this would be easy.  I mean, a single word from The One...

Apparently, it goes beyond that conflict:

In the interview, which covered a vast range of topics from internal issues like health care to foreign policy regarding North Korea, Obama said that if he would have anticipated the issues early on, "we might not have raised expectations as high."

Yeah.  When you present yourself as a demigod, people expect things to happen. 

Instead of real progress, real accomplishment, this is what we're getting from Obama.  From the TIME interview:

On Iran, one of our trickiest foreign policy challenges, we have held the international community together, both in our engagement strategy, but also now as we move into a dual-track approach. Which is, If they don't accept the open hand, we've got to make sure they understand there are consequences for breaking international rules. It's going to be tough, but I think the relationship we've developed with Russia will be very helpful. The outreach we've done to our traditional NATO allies will be very helpful. The work that we've done with China — including the work we've done with China to enforce sanctions against North Korea — will help us in dealing more effectively with Iran.

Can you figure that out?  Can anyone explain what progress we've made with China on Iran?  The Chinese have been absolutely rigid.  Is the president just spinning, or is he delusional?

Remember the campaign, when McCain and Palin raised questions about Obama's experience, his knowledge, the fact that he'd never run anything larger than his office?  Too bad the country wasn't listening.

January 21, 2010