Obama gives Islam speech therapy

Barack Obama and Secret Service members
practice upcoming address to Muslim world.

As everyone agrees, President for Life Barack Obama is a splendid talker, at least when he is accompanied by a certain technological crutch. He believes there is no problem so great that it will not yield to his skill at saying nothing, but with panache. Charming birds from trees is not worth his effort; he could persuade an asteroid set on pronging the earth to change its mind and reverse course, needing but to open a dialogue with it.

We have it on the authority of Time that his eloquence drive is to be turned on the Muslim World:

When President Obama visits Turkey early next month, some observers are expecting he will use the occasion to deliver on his promise to deliver a major foreign policy speech from a Muslim nation in his first 100 days. But indications are that he will not give the speech in Turkey. The White House and State Department have not yet decided on the location for the speech, which is meant to undo some of the damage done to America's image in the Muslim world during the George W. Bush Administration.

This reminds me of how, when I am negligent enough to pick up a copy of Time in a dentist's waiting room, it is like getting an extra root canal. "Undo some of the damage done to America's image in the Muslim world during the George W. Bush Administration"? What about the damage done to the United States of America by the Muslim world during every administration since Carter's?

Trouble is, Obama's handlers are dithering about where exactly in Dar-al-Islam he should pronounce his historic message of "forgive us for breathing." Jakarta? According to the CAIR spokesman Time quotes, it's a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to waste your golden breath there. Rabat, Morocco? "Too far west." Amman, Jordan? Don't call us, we'll call you. Mecca and Medina? Non-Muslims are not allowed, so Obama fetching up there might raise questions. Cairo? Too anti-U.S.; the president might not live long enough to sign the surrender document. "Baghdad? Still too dangerous. Riyadh? Obama would be seen as being in the pocket of the Saudi royal family. Oman, Bahrain ... the list could go on."

Look, I've got an idea. Forget Old Islam. The future lies with New Islam. How about Europe? Brussels, for instance.

In the end, though, Hooper believes that geography may be secondary to the content of Obama's speech. "What will resonate is [Obama's] words and policies," he says. Muslims will respond not only to the location but also to "the fact that he's trying to reach out — with rhetoric, and hopefully also with actions."

Regardless of where B. Hussein Obama chooses to do his resonating and reaching out, in the CAIR spokesman's words, he'd better take an extra teleprompter as a back-up. An unscripted remark could call forth one, two, many jihadists: "A powerful bloc of 57 Islamic states is again pushing for the UN to make it a criminal offense to criticise or ‘defame' Islam."