Obama's whistling by graveyard approach to terrorism not working

Byron York:

The attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was more than just al Qaeda's latest attempt to bring death and destruction to American shores. It was also, in its still-unfolding political aftermath, a head-on collision between Barack Obama's soaring rhetoric and the reality of terrorism.

Obama's first response to the incident, or nonresponse, did not surprise anyone who followed his 2008 presidential campaign. As a candidate, Obama repeatedly accused the Bush administration of using terrorism to spread fear among the American public for political gain.

"Since 9/11, we've had a president who essentially fed us a politics of fear," Obama said at a December 2007 Democratic debate in Iowa. "We have been governed by fear for the last six years," he said two months earlier in Philadelphia. "We're tired of fear," he said still earlier at a debate in South Carolina.

Obama pledged a new, quieter approach. He would improve America's image in the world, reach out to Muslims and dial back the fear.

So when a radical Islamist Army officer shouting "Allahu Akbar!" murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama's response was so low-key it took him days to recognize it as a terrorist incident. And when a radical Islamist Nigerian nearly succeeded in detonating enough explosives to bring down a Northwest Airlines jumbo jet as it approached Detroit, Obama remained silent.

Some observers thought it was a mistake for the president to continue golfing, swimming and munching shave ice in Hawaii while the nation learned the details of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's terrifying plot. But it was a deliberate plan.

"There is a reason why Obama hasn't given a public statement," journalist Marc Ambinder wrote the day after the attempted bombing. "It's strategy."

Ambinder, politics editor for The Atlantic and chief political consultant for CBS News, is perhaps the most reliable conduit for White House spin outside the White House itself. "A two-bit mook is sent by al Qaeda to do a dastardly deed," Ambinder wrote, channeling the White House theory of the case. "[Obama] presides over the federal response ... but an in-person Obama statement isn't needed; indeed, a message expressing command, control, outrage and anger might elevate the importance of the deed, would generate panic. ..."

Obama chose not to "chest-thump, prejudge, interfere, politicize." Instead, he would "project his calm on the American people." It was, Ambinder wrote, "a tough and novel approach" to terrorism.

It was also dumb, and it did not survive its first contact with reality. But it was precisely what the president's supporters on the Left wanted.

...

But Brennan's talking points could not undo one fact. On Dec. 25, Americans saw Barack Obama's carefully considered initial response to a serious terrorist incident. And it left them worried not only about the threat itself, but the president's ability to handle it.

This is just another example of how out of touch the kook left in this country is with reality. Unfortunately the President counts himself a member of that group, until the polls shows how goofy the strategy is. He is still a long way from reparing the damage he has done to himself with his too cool response.

Most voters do not think it is smart to try the perp in a civilian court. In fact a majority believe he should endure harsh interrogation to tell us what he knows about the others al Qaeda is sending to engage in mass murder for Allah. Most people think he should not be sending reinforcements for al Qaeda from Gitmo. The left's indefensible defense policy is preventing voters with another reason to vote against Democrats this year.