Uh-Oh…

This sure didn’t take long.

(Reuters, at Yahoo news, via Drudge)

Hardline demonstrators burn posters of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, during a demonstration in support of the people of Gaza, in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran January 13, 2009.REUTERS/Stringer (IRAN)

I’ve thought for a while now that the whole deal about Obama being a better representative of the US to the Muslim world would backfire.  Since I’m not a genius, I’m sure lots of other people picked up on it too.  That is, those of us who do not have the grandiose, pie-in-the sky expectations that Obama did everything he could to encourage.  The Islamic world has heard the same message Americans heard:  Hope and Change.  Obama will be a better friend to Muslim countries, he will understand us better, etc.  Like many (often opposing) special-interest groups here in America, Muslim countries feel they were promised something too, and they want what they were promised.  Now.  No matter that the Pres-Elect hasn’t even been sworn in, and he’s a little busy right now with saddling future generations with a $1 trillion stimulus package.  He’s supposed to condemn Israel, back Hamas, and provide “peace” and help with pushing the Jews out into the sea.  But he hasn’t, and perhaps Muslims in the Middle East are getting the idea he probably won’t-at least not to the extent they’d like.  So now, as quickly as they embraced him they are burning a huge silk-screen image in front of the Swiss Embassy.

This is in Tehran, you know, Iran.  Where all they need is just a little Obama-style diplomacy.  You see, the problem is, Bush wouldn’t talk to Ahmedinejad. 

Does anyone remember the Muslim reaction when he said he would invade Pakistan if necessary?