Obama the Messiah Twists History

"He's sort of God," a Newsweek writer said of Barack Obama on MSNBC recently, which for Charles Krauthammer is only a mild overstatement of how the president sees himself: "hovering above mere mortals, mere country, to gaze benignly upon the darkling plain beneath him." In his Cairo speech, Obama took his "gospel of understanding" to an extreme, equating brutality in the Muslim world with mild American foibles, writes the Washington Post columnist.

To Krauthammer's ears, Obama even made the rights of women sound equally threatened in the US and Iran—as if "some softball team receiving insufficient Title IX funds" could be equated to beatings, acid attacks, and stonings. The president might think his on-the-one-hand-on-the-other stance shows leadership and balance. In fact, his "self-flagellating apologetics" signal little more than hunger for approval and "a disturbing ambivalence toward his own country." (More Barack Obama stories.)