Is anyone surprised?

Now fate has given Obama a chance to be presidential rather than pretend. Taking advantage of the Olympic distraction in Beijing, the Russians invaded South Ossetia, a territory on the north side of Georgia, a democratic U.S. ally. Out of the blocks, the Russians bombed civilians, rolled tanks across an internationally recognized border and threatened to launch an all-out, destabilizing war. Now it looks as if their army has cut Georgia in two.

Moreover, Russian bombs reportedly targeted the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia on its way to the Mediterranean -- the only oil pipeline in Central Asia not under Russian control. Russia is tightening its chokehold on oil and gas at precisely the moment energy costs have become the paramount domestic issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Obama's response?

First, late Thursday evening, he gave a conventional written statement calling for calm, U.N. action and "restraint" from both sides -- followed an hour later by a slightly stronger condemnation of Russian aggression and a call for a cease-fire.

The invasion of Georgia elicited a wan written communique instead of the sort of exciting rhetoric we've come to expect from his make-believe presidency. But he did make it in front of the cameras the next day for a rally celebrating his vacation in Hawaii. He promised "to go body surfing at some undisclosed location."

That he doesn't find the situation serious can be no plainer.

The lack of experience of Hussein has been debated endlessly, but never denied. Instead we have been repeatedly told that it makes no difference.

Most of these idiot claims have come from the "food is" generation. Never wanting for anything necessary for comfort, much less survival, this group of over educated and under talented people immediately bought into the fiction that because Hussein claimed he could solve the race problem in the US it was true and meaningful in the wide world we live in.

The difficulty is, of course, that the race "problem" in the US is meaningless to Russia, OPEC and other enemies and semi enemies of our country. The blackness of Hussein is worthless in stopping Russian tanks and terrorist plots.

His energy policy won't repair the destroyed pipelines and it certainly won't allow the President to be able to take our oil off the world market declaring that "We have stopped all exports until the world situation becomes stable."

What a cheering statement that would be if we only had drilled here and drilled now. That we didn't is a known fact. That we must do so is also known, but not by Hussein and his minions who lovingly accepted Hussein's edict to solve the problem by inflating their tires.

There is a difference between conserving oil that we have and conserving oil that we do not have.

Perhaps the reality of that statement will come to Hussein as he body surfs. But most likely not. Having never faced harsh reality he is totally unequipped to do so now.

LATimes