NYTs Doubts the One, Invokes Carter: Obama Prepares for Long Siege, Middle-East Strategy, Possibly Re-election in Doubt

You’ll want to take this all in.

Coming from the Obama-friendly Times, this supports earlier reports of chaos at the State Department. From second guessing, to all but admitting problems and invoking Carter, there’s a clear sense of an administration in panic mode, indicating how vulnerable Obama is given unfolding events in the Middle-East.

After days of anti-American violence across the Muslim world, the White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Arab world.

The unrest has suddenly become Mr. Obama’s most serious foreign policy crisis of the election season, and analysts say it is calling into question central tenets of his Middle East policy.

Some critics and commentators were already evoking the images of the Iranian hostage crisis that doomed another presidency.

…  it’s going to make him look weak because he’s the one sitting in the Oval Office.”