Obama on Iranian Protesters: 'Let Them Eat Hummus'

I think I've figured out how the Iranian freedom-seekers can get some notice from the President of the United States. Perhaps they ought to carry posters proclaiming We Are All Community Organizers.

Then maybe Obama might be even slightly interested in their plight.

On Monday, President Obama said it was none of his business to get involved in Iran's sham elections where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clings to power through his usual thuggery.

Yesterday, Obama changed his mind and climbed into bed with Ahmadinejad, laying waste to the hundreds of thousands of brave protesters who have taken to the streets in search of freedom in the form of political challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi.

"The difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised," Obama said yesterday in an interview on CNBC.

"Either way we are going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States."

In other words, "change" is entirely overrated.

He may as well have scoffed at protesters: "Let them eat hummus."

Amazingly, this is even worse than what Obama had to say the previous day, when he finally felt moved enough to comment on the surge of freedom watched around the world.

Asked if he had a message for the protesters, he said Iran is a sovereign nation, which is diplo-babble for "none of my business."

Obama said he does not want the United States to become an issue in the election and has suggested that was why he was tempering his comments.

But this is a moment when the United States can be an issue the good old-fashioned way -- as a beacon of hope for the oppressed everywhere. That's certainly why the protesters pleading for freedom aren't speaking Farsi, Hebrew or French.

They're begging for freedom in English.

Read the rest. They might speak English, but they're speaking in a tongue Obama doesn't understand. Or care to, to his eternal shame.

More from Amir Taheri and Jonah Goldberg.