THE DEPTH OF A SHOT GLASS:

Obama Goes From Blank Slate to Empty Suit (Jack Kelly, 3/06/11, RCP)

"By the time of Obama's empty speech, even the notoriously lenient Arab League had suspended Libya's participation, and several of Gadhafi's senior diplomatic envoys had bravely defected," noted columnist Christopher Hitchens, who'd supported Mr. Obama in 2008.

Britain and France have taken more action to protect the rebels from Mr. Gadhafi's wrath than the United States. The situation is so bad that one Libyan dissident called upon former President George H.W. Bush for help. " 'Bring Bush! Make a no-fly zone. Bomb the planes,' shouted soldier-turned-rebel Nasr Ali," reported Reuters.

Mr. Obama has mostly been missing in action on big domestic issues, too. His proposed budget "punted" on the fiscal crisis, The Washington Post noted in a caustic editorial. And he's delegated to Vice President Biden the task of negotiating with House Republicans on the budget.

Mr. Obama has backtracked on many of the campaign promises he made in 2008, such as closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and imposing no new taxes on the middle class. He has even reneged on his implicit promise to be a racial healer. His administration has been the most racially polarizing since Woodrow Wilson's.

In 2008, much of the news media projected onto the blank screen that was Barack Obama what they thought we wanted to see in a president. Mr. Obama's "brilliance" -- which pundits asserted without offering much evidence -- more than compensated for the thinness of his resume, they assured us.

It's time now for them to show us the little man behind the curtain.