I can’t tell if Obama is really just that full of himself

…or if he’s so wet behind the ears that he is genuinely surprised that his actions are so rude and stupid. Case in point: is the guy *trying* to destroy US relations with the Vatican? Or is he really so naive as to think that since nobody outside his intellectual hothouse sees a problem with abortion then the Holy See can’t really be serious about it either?

Some people have their undies in a bunch about Obama’s diplomacy in the Islamosphere. He says a couple of nice things about Islam, makes a bow to one of our Saudi “friends” (as though our gov’t haven’t been bowing to these thugs for years) and the wingnutsphere starts fulminating as though he’d just downloaded all our highest security data from the War Room and emailed it to the North Koreans or offered the soul of each American on a plate to Satan. Whatever. If he wants to say something nice and conciliatory to reassure Muslims that we aren’t at war with Islam, I have no beef with that. It’s a damn sight better than the countless wingnuts in the blogosphere who *do* wish we were at war with a billion people.

But with disturbingly predictable alacrity, he demonstrates the American Left’s curious bondage to what I have called “satanic ecumenism” whenever he interacts with the Catholic Church. Summed up, it’s the growing conviction among our Chattering Classes and Manufacturers of Culture (who are dripping the ideology into western skulls full of mush), that all religions are equally superior to Christianity and, especially, Catholicism. Viewed through that lens, it seems to me that Obama is, at once, both stunningly arrogant, extraordinarily naive, and a complete empty suit, ready to conform his mind completely to the most unthinking prejudices and assumptions of his class. In a very real way, his insults to Rome are an expression of a curious sort of timidity. So long as he is lionized by the small circle of peers whose opinion he values, all is well. It’s something like with a group of artists who crank out ugly art that nobody likes, but who go on praising each other as bold visionaries and only care what each other think. If I’m right, I wonder how long Obama can do that before reality begins to intrude.