Krauthammer: Obama 'Disconnected, Detached' on Terror

The only thing we have to fear is NOT fear itself.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think if you look back over the last two weeks, what is so surprising and so unsettling is not the individual lapses, the missed information here and there. I think it's the demeanor and the language of the president, a sense people have that he's disconnected.

He doesn't either want to or grasp the nature of the depth of the threat.

The way he waits three days after the attack to say anything. He reacts, you know, casually, dressed looking as if he resents being taken off the golf course. He speaks about as if he's giving a police report, speaks about the incident involving a 'suspect,' an 'alleged attack.' He speaks about him as an isolated extremist, as if this is a, you know, a disgruntled postal worker attacking someone in the United States, the sense that it's not part of a larger effort.

And it took him the fifth attempt in the remarks he made yesterday to actually use the term 'We are at war,' and to make it sound as if he believes it. But when it takes a fifth attempt, and your initial reaction, which is your truest reaction, is a way of looking at it in a benign and detached way, it's extremely unsettling. And that's why people are worried.

The mistakes are made. The Bush administration allowed the attack of Richard Reid, which we were lucky it didn't actually succeed, it can happen to any administration, a lapse here and there. But a disconnected and detached and affectless president is rather disturbing. And that's why I think the reaction is extremely unsettled.

It is disturbing.

It's frightening. I feel extremely uneasy about Obama and his ability to successfully manage the War on Terror.

I have no confidence in Obama and his administration to wage this war.

Obama was tested and he failed miserably.

Extremely unsettling.

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