THEY'RE ONTO HIM - AT 8:01 P.M. ET:  The Brits, or at least the Brits outside the loony left, are on to Obama.  I get the sense from the international press that the French - the ones who don't hang out in cafes with American students spending their junior years abroad - are getting the picture as well.  The Israelis had his number from day one.  Now the Germans seem to be well past the worship stage.  This from Spiegel Online, has been making the rounds:

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

Nothing like a compliment.

One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received.

Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool.

I did not read anywhere else that the cadets were prompted.  Inappropriate, in my view. 

One didn't have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama's speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.

An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan -- and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war -- and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate.

Ouch.  And...

It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives -- their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.

Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners -- particularly those with a talent for oration -- are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called "Hope."

Yeah, and remember that Bill Clinton was "the man from Hope."  Must be something in the water.

In his speech on America's new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.

The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself.

That was not an endorsement.  Despite all its apparent softness, and its very real treachery in negotiations and foreign policy, Europe still wants a strong American president.  Maybe now the Europeans will start realizing the value of George Bush.

December 2, 2009