How's This For Winning Hearts And Minds?

The Best of the Web makes note of the extraordinary consternation on the left that arose from Obama's statements and misstatements about the Ground Zero Mosque.  Progressive opinionators have even resorted to calling upon George W. Bush to rescue Obama from himself.

Things have gotten so bad, the Washington Examiner's Byron York reports, that the pro-mosque left is looking for leadership from George W. Bush:

Distressed by President Obama's waffling on the issue, they're calling on former President George W. Bush to announce his support for the project, because in this case Bush understands better than Obama the connection between the war on terror and the larger question of America's relationship with Islam. It's an extraordinary change of position for commentators who long argued that Bush had done grievous harm to America's image in the Muslim world and that Obama represented a fresh start for the United States. Nevertheless, they are now seeing a different side of the former president.

But in their rush to the defense of Obama, progressives just can't help themselves. From the brilliance of their intellectual, moral, and general all around superiority, progressives just can't help but insult the rest of America for holding opinions which, sadly, differ so markedly from their own.

With Obama having seized the initiative and quickly abdicated it, it is left to the professional controversialists of the left to make the case for the mosque scheme. This cackle of rads are the worst public diplomats you could ever hope to find. Their approach has been to try to bully Americans into submission by piling insult upon insult: Bigot! Un-American! Not only is this unlikely to win anyone over, it also perpetuates the lie that most Americans are anti-Muslim bigots.

Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson, meanwhile, can't even criticize Obama without insulting tens of millions of Americans:

How can President Barack Obama be so right about the mosque and yet get it so wrong?

Here's how: He is so supremely confident in his intellect that he forgets, on his way to the correct decision, to slow down and pick up not-so-gifted stragglers.

Brilliant, penetrating analysis.  One question:  Is Ms. Carlson more brilliant than Obama?  It's so hard to know, blinded as we are by the dazzling radiance of their intellectual incandescence.  We can only straggle forward as best we can – towards November.

Comments

[jorod]

Obama has a lot of nerve to lecture the American people on religious tolerance. How about we build a synagogue next to the Kaaba?

[CaptDMO]

RE:The days "Day By Day" (08/21/10)
1.Doesn't Ms. Pelosi sound strangely similar to "other" gavel-wielding admin. folk, deeming certain home grown critics of socialism (returning soldiers)as worthy of special
threat "considerations"?
2. Blobs of grease are now free of charge along the southern coastal
boarders. I suspect they will be for quite a while. Is there a continued expectation of Dem/Progy legislated gub'mint financing to "control" them?
3. How is it, exactly, that Ms. Pelosi was bestowed the gavel (over sized, for useful idiot centric photo-ops), contrary to traditional political machinations?

[Rob]

I have a slightly different take.

I’m just an ordinary American trying to do the best he can. I do not have extraordinary intellect. And I am grateful to certain noble people like Carlson who, with their extraordinary knowledge, help me understand the wisdom necessary to lead a productive life.

Now if you’ll excuse me, as someone who is intellectually challenged and frightened, I must be off to ensconce myself in blankets of guns and religion.