President Obama likes to preen himself on his supposed moral superiority to his predecessor. He announced the closing of Guantanamo in his first week on the job (though, ten months on, it remains open) to advertise the new administration�s disdain for George Bush�s war-fighting tactics. And at every opportunity since, he has stressed that his policies � on taxes, on the Middle East, on health care, on �man-caused disasters,� and on �climate change� � reflect a more refined and elevated morality than has ever before held sway in Washington, D.C.

So you have to wonder how the president slept last Wednesday night.

He has known that critics in the United States regarded his posture toward the Iranian regime as weak. But on Wednesday, he heard this critique from a different quarter � one that will be more difficult to dismiss.

	  	Kudlow: President Zero Sum Goes to Asia Lowry: