This week's Watcher Council nominations are now up:

Regardless of the topic you will usually find that Barack Obama is at the root of the problem, not as some sort or problem solver but as an antagonist or an agitprop. Whether it is the Obama administration's missteps on Iran by failing to support democracy and liberty over tyranny and oppression, the illegal firing and subsequent smear campaign against former AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin or the further degeneration of the mainstream media as ABC teams up with the White House to promote the Democrats plan to get their hands on the Health Care industry and all the dollars that go with it, Barack Obama is a central figure in each of these problems.

The overwhelming concern was the Iraninan election and the subsequent political protests. Obama's lukewarm support for the protesters was particularly noted, especially since this is a President who - per Bookworm Room - is not prone to rhetorical reticence. The Razor's post saw the Carter's debilitating legacy in the White House's tepid statements. On the other side of the argument, Wolf Howling insisted that "Obama went as far as he could reasonably go in his speech."

Council members were also less than hopeful that the administration would be better at dealing with post-election Iran. Joshuapundit pointed out that the next regime will still be intransigent, making engagement as irrelevant as it's always been. My post was about the MSM's beloved pseudo-sophisticated experts who got everything wrong about pre-election Iran but who'll still be pervasively cited afterward. Soccer Dad traced how the rest of Obama's Middle East policy - predictable as it was during the election - is not a recipe for Israeli-Arab peace or stability. More the opposite.

Foreign policy isn't the only place where the left's bien pensant experts have blithely recommended disaster. The Glittering Eye caught Krugman's "we really need a housing bubble" 2002 recommendation. Krugman in 2009, of course, thinks that the housing crash proves we need to embrace his anti-free market policies. Similarly, I'd like to know which part of the President's economic brain trust thought that bulldozing cities and re-primitivizing America was a good idea. Via Right Truth:

Not only does Obama think bulldozing cities and returning them to their natural state is a good idea, roads are not being repaved but are having gravel installed instead. We're going from black top highways to dirt/gravel roads. Hubby reminds me of Toledo, Ohio where people are being fined $25 for parking in their own gravel driveways. What's next, mud huts and the horse and buggy? Speaking of mud huts, it is being reported that many members of Obama's extended Muslim family are planning to write books, to cash in while they can on Obama's fame and fortune... That also includes George who lives in a hut in Kenya. Seems they follow Obama's motto, never let a crisis or opportunity pass by without making the most of it.

On the plus side, The Provocateur traced how ACORN is embezzling money and consolidating power to ensure that the people running the country continue running the country. In the meantime Sotomayor will be placed on the Court, despite the concerns about Ricci that The Glittering Eye outlined. Also in the meantime, they'll presumably continue to smear their opponents as unpatriotic. Rhymes with Right discusses how that's OK now.

References and previously after the jump...