Barrel Strength

First it was the Russians, and now it is North Koreas who are taking steps after taking measure of President Obama.  Russia dropped their plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border, after Obama negated the plans to deploy missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.  A press report states:

An unnamed official in the Russian military’s general staff said: “The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through plans to deploy” elements of its missile defence shield in eastern Europe, according to the Interfax news agency.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, had warned that the US shield – which the Bush White House said was necessary to defend against potential attacks from the Middle East – would be interpreted by Moscow as a direct provocation.

Now North Korea is changing tack as well.

North Korea said it is scrapping all military and political agreements with South Korea, accusing the government in Seoul of pushing inter-Korean relations to “the brink of war.”

“All the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the north and south will be nullified,” the reunification committee in Pyongyang said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency today.

It is no secret that the press coverage for Obama is much more fawning than the one George W. Bush. What is interesting is the length to which the press is willing to go to present it in that manner.  Steven Den Beste on his blog, when not posting about females in impossibly tight dresses, provides the following examples of press worship:

How Obama set the tone for a new US revolution
Oprah (who?) says “The Light of the New Age is here!”
Celebs compare Obama to Jesus, Gandhi
Black first family ‘changes everything’

A recent Obama incident highlights this trend. NY Daily News reports how Obama mistook a window for a door and tried to walk through it.

It looks like President Obama hasn’t gotten acquainted to his White House surroundings. On the way back to the Oval Office Tuesday, the President approached a paned window, instead of the actual door — located a few feet to his right.

The report then goes on to draw parallels to George W. Bush.

Doors didn’t open automatically for Obama’s predecessor either. While making a hasty exit from a 2005 press conference in Beijing, former President George W. Bush tugged on the handles of a door, only to find it locked.

The comparison is absurd because Bush was in Beijing, not in his home, and tried to open a door, not a window, which happened to be locked.