An unsettling difference.

The difference between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama is one between an ass kicker and an ass kisser.^[1]

It’s a mistake to get this distinction wrong. Mr. Obama’s experience as a community organizer in Chicago and Alinsky-style smoke artist prepare him for precisely nothing in the deadly serious business of statecraft. On the other hand, Mr. Putin’s service in the KGB was, I’m guessing now, quite unlike that of being a Harvard Law Review editor.

Better Pee Wee Herman’s grasp of geopolitical fundamentals than Obama’s but . . . it’s Obama whom we’ve got.

Sometime in the next three years he’ll be getting some OJT in matters as to which eloquence and being cool are irrelevant. I don’t wish this on him -- or us -- but I fear it’s inevitable, especially given the weakness that Obama shows to the world.

Mr. Putin is a serious player with a serious agenda and Mr. Obama wastes his capital on a cop-professor-president garden party and a stupid attempt to wreck the U.S. health care industry.

I’d give a lot to see him hanging out with some guys from the 82d or bench pressing 150 lbs. but that would be asking for Obama to be a different man than he is. He’s probably in the Oval Office right now polishing another apology to the world or some directive to force the Hondurans to get on board with the Chavez-Cuban agenda. Or checking with Holder on the progress of his investigation into CIA officer interrogation methods.

The U.S. of Truman, Eisenhower, McArthur, Patton, Halsey, Nimitz, Jackson, and McCarthy (PBUH) it isn’t.

No, it really isn’t.

Notes
^[1] "The Strong Horse vs. My Little Pony." By Vanderleun, American Digest, 8/31/09.