Guess what? It’s “scrutiny time” for Barack Obama.

Mr. Obama was sworn into office as a Senator in January of 2005, and officially launched his presidential campaign in February of 2007. For most of his short, happy, 3 1/2 year life in national politics, he has spent his time and energy trying to “out-liberal” his liberal presidential opponents, and being the “most anti-war” candidate from which to choose.

And it now seems safe to call him the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee. Hillary could, of course, rise again from the political dead (and she‘ll likely remain in the race for the foreseeable future). But it is difficult to imagine that Obama will let what appears to be an impending nomination slip through his hands.

As such, it also seems safe to say that, based on what is known now, he may very well be our forty-fourth President.

So what does the prospective forty-fourth President really intend to do? Let’s start with foreign policy and national security.

Obama’s temper tantrum press conference in South Dakota last Friday, wherein he claimed that he had been “attacked” by President Bush, was very telling. On Thursday, the President had spoken before the Israeli Knesset (the nation’s legislative body), warning against those who would seek to diplomatically engage with terrorists and terrorist states, and calling such persons appeasers. In making these brief remarks, the President made no reference to any particular individual or group or country, and gave no indication as to who he believes the present-day appears to be.

Yet, less than twenty-four hours later, our prospective forty-fourth President was insisting that he was the target of Bush’s criticism. Why? Why would Mr. Obama personalize the President’s generalized and impersonal comments?

Perhaps it is because Mr. Obama has over the course of his campaign equivocated on the issue of dealing with terrorist states. At one point last year he stated that, as President, the use of nuclear weapons would be “off the table” in a conflict between the U.S. and Iran, only to end up changing his mind a day later. Elsewhere Obama has suggested that he would meet personally with President Ahmedinejad of Iran. If the shoe fits, Mr. Obama, …..

In his effort to “strike back” at Bush, Obama reiterated during his South Dakota tirade that “tough-minded diplomacy” and “engaging rivals” have been foreign policy approaches deployed by both Democratic and Republican Presidents, including Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan. This is true.

But the policy of non-negotiation with terrorist nations is not merely a “Bush thing” or a “McCain thing” - - it’s an “American thing.” And a “rival nation” and a “State Sponsor Of Terrorism” are not the same thing. President Carter understood this, and it was in 1979, during his Presidency, that the U.S. Department Of State began designating some countries around the world as “State Sponsors Of Terrorism.” Continued...