AGAIN WE ASK, DOES HE GET IT? - AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  Reader Jean Spik alerts us, ah the repetition, to still one more slight that President Obama has apparently directed at our closest allies.  It was expected by NATO that Mr. Obama would name General James N. Mattis as supreme allied commander in Europe.  But Obama pulled a switcheroo, naming Admiral James Stavridis instead.  Why is this important?  Germany's Spiegel Online explains:

In Brussels, though, many felt bluffed. "America treats this like it's purely an American matter -- and they didn't even give any hints about the appointment," one NATO employee said. "The conspiratorial manner of the personnel search was almost reminiscent of the way the pope is selected," Stefani Weiss, a NATO expert at the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation in Brussels, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

COMMENT:  You know, pretty soon our allies may secretly wish for the days of George Bush.  Bush may have been blunt, but Obama is insulting.  Which would you prefer?

March 25, 2009