Obama as world leader

President Obama has hit his stride as a world leader in his back-to-back United Nations address, presding over the Security Council, adjunct meetings with world leaders, and then the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Along the way, his response to the revelation of a second nuclear facility in Iran has projected strength, resolve, and leadership. In his radio address today, he said:

"Iran's leaders must now choose – they can live up to their responsibilities and achieve integration with the community of nations. Or they will face increased pressure and isolation, and deny opportunity to their own people."

At the same time, he offered them a "serious, meaningful dialogue," along with the warning about serous consequences. And he got Russia and China to agree. The issue couldn't have been more timely. One has to wonder if we leaked this news to coincide with the focus at the UN on sanctions against Iran. It helped galvanize and consolidate the world's resolve to deal with the problem.

There is some indication that new information had just come to light; on the other hand, some have said that we have known about this second, underground facility for some time.

Anyway -- it seems to be working. Iran was obviously caught off guard and now has announced that the UN inspectors will be allowed to inspect the new underground facility.

This does not change what I wrote yesterday about Israel's widely-known "secret" nuclear bombs. If I were the Iranians, that would be my first line of defense: "We will allow UN inspectors into our peaceful nuclear power plants the same day Israel allows UN inspectors into their nuclear arsenal."

Nevertheless -- this has been a good week for Obama on the national stage. If george bush has any capacity for self-reflection and any humility, he has to be realizing how pitiful, how wrong, and how destructive his leadership was by comparison.

Ralph