HALF-HEARTED CORRECTION - AT 7:10 P.M. ET:  With obvious reluctance and equally obvious indifference, presidential news secretary Robert Gibbs walked back a statement he made yesterday declaring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the elected leader of Iran:

MR. GIBBS: Well, let me correct a little bit of what I said yesterday. I denoted that Mr. Ahmadinejad was the elected leader of Iran. I would say it's not for me to pass judgment on. He's been inaugurated, that's a fact. Whether any election was fair, obviously the Iranian people still have questions about that and we'll let them decide that. But I would simply say he's been inaugurated, and we know that is simply a fact.

Okay, but Gibbs, in keeping with the breathtaking indifference of this administration to democracy, would offer no encouragement to those Iranian freedom fighters risking and losing their lives:

Q: Do you recognize him as the leader, elected fairly or not?

MR. GIBBS: It's not for—it's not for me or for us to denote his legitimacy, except to acknowledge the fact.

Q: Does the White House believe the election was fair?

MR. GIBBS: That's not for us to pass judgment on. I think that's for the Iranian people to decide, and obviously there are many that still have a lot of questions.

Yeah, a lot of questions, Mr. Gibbs.  A lot of questions.  And it's pretty clear that your administration has no interest in having them answered. 

So, we have Bill Clinton going to North Korea.  We have White House contempt for democracy in Iran.  We have insults toward Britain.  We have almost daily sneering at Israel.  We have the awarding of the Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson, who carried water for the Muslim dictatorships at the UN.  We have the attempt to restore an ally of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro to the presidency in Honduras, from which he was legally and constitutionally ousted.

Proud of your country's foreign policy?

August 5, 2009