On the “Wisdom” of Obama

This morning POLITICO Arena asks:

Should POTUS show his cards on mosque?

My response:

Obama’s inept handling of the Ground Zero mosque controversy is perfectly consistent with so much else he’s touched during his so‐​far short presidency. On Friday night he waded into this local matter by miscasting it as one of high constitutional principle. Then as his defenders were shouting “Bravo!” on Saturday he pulled the rug out from under them by saying, correctly, that it was really a matter of “wisdom” — about which he wasn’t going to comment. Maybe he’s right about that. After all, the president isn’t, or shouldn’t be, the moral compass of the nation — certainly not this president. But it’s rather late in the day to be ducking out on this one, now that it’s been elevated to the presidential level. And it isn’t as if we didn’t know how inexperienced this man was when we elected him president. What was it Churchill said about democracy?