Obama: Pirates? What Pirates?

Huffington Post/a> has a headline: “Obama on Pirates: Declines to Answer Question.” According to the story,

The president was asked about the incident as he met with U.S. homeowners about refinancing mortgages. At the close of a Roosevelt Room event, the president was asked by a reporter if he were concerned about the piracy incident.

Obama responded: "Guys, we're talking about housing right now."

Sure, it’s a very sensitive operation at a very sensitive time, but perhaps he could say... “This is a very sensitive operation at a very sensitive time. As has been reported, our Navy is in the area, we are strongly committed to the international fight against piracy, and I am monitoring the situation closely. Beyond that, I do not think it is wise to comment at this time.” (Alternatively, “I and Secretaries Gates and Clinton are monitoring...”)

Really, how hard can this be for the team that campaigned so brilliantly last year?

What troubles me, though, is the nagging fear that this was deliberately planned. Surely he and the White House press operation knew that a question on the piracy incident was bound to arise and therefore had to prepare a response. Was the point, then, to say implicitly, “I’m focusing on the economy and ordinary Americans, not like those Bushes, who always seemed to be worrying about foreign policy rather than people like you.”

Whatever else we can expect from our Presidents, the ability to multitask should be top of the list. The world is a “complex” place, as the press and foreign policy types keep reminding us, and a President has to be able to handle both domestic and foreign policy – or at a minimum know when and what to delegate to staff. Here, either he failed that test or was deliberately downplaying a serious foreign policy concern involving the lives of Americans. Shoving foreign policy issues under the Oval Office rug is noticed, not approvingly, around the world by friends and allies and cheerfully by our foes.

On the other hand, I suppose we can be grateful that he didn’t respond: “Pirates? Wow, they’re off to a great 2-1 start<! Maybe they’ll join the Steelers in the champions’ circle.”