I know that Obama is a super-keen Vulcan with a grasp of logic beyond the grasp of mere mortals, let alone that of "rabid" conservative "animals." But I think the stress of the health care debate is sending Dear Leader over the edge. Now he's managing to alienate even his lefty allies:

President Barack Obama on Monday reaffirmed US support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and accused critics of his policy on the political crisis of hypocrisy. "President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president and, for the sake of the Honduran people, democratic and constitutional order must be restored," Obama said during a summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper...

The US leader also took aim at critics who have accused Washington of meddling in internal Honduran politics. "The same critics who say the US has not intervened in Honduras are the same people who say we are always intervening and Yankees need to get out of Latin America," he said, accusing such opponents of "hypocrisy." "You can't have it both ways," he said in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara, adding that Zelaya had been removed from office illegally in a coup.

Of course the conservative criticism has been that Obama intervened too much in Honduras. The way I know that is because there were roughly a billion conservative posts going after him for "meddling" in Honduras while "not meddling" in Iran, where "meddling" was used in the traditional sense of "intervening." More explicitly, cf. this Hot Air post about how Obama was "intervening on Zelaya's behalf."

Now in some cases, getting criticism from the left and the right is a sign that a politician is navigating a perilous centrist course. Except in the zero-sum world of IR, where the left's new found respect for realism implies something close to a zero-sum power distribution. So when Obama weighs in on Zelaya's behalf, either he objectively succeeds - Zelaya gets back in power - or he fails. Appealing to some imaginary "international constituency" is at best secondary. By getting involved in a dispute he could have punted on, Obama has managed to fail at failing. Smart power!

Relatedly, is anyone in charge at the WH?

The Obama administration has backed away from its call to restore ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power and instead put the onus on him for taking "provocative actions" that polarized his country and led to his overthrow on June 28. The new position was contained in a letter this week to Sen. Richard Lugar... that also rejected calls by some of Zelaya's backers to impose harsh economic sanctions against Honduras. While condemning the coup, the letter pointedly failed to call for Zelaya's return. "Our policy and strategy for engagement is not based on supporting any particular politician or individual," said the letter to Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This is the most artful Honduras-related diplomacy since Hillary discovered - to her surprise - that Zelaya is reckless. That replaced the WH's previous high-water mark, which was when Gibbs announced that Obama spoke up so people wouldn't blame us for the coup a day after Chavez blamed us for the coup.

In any case: American citizens at home exercising their Constitutional rights to assemble and petition the government: political terrorists. Chavez-linked thugs abroad who tried to overturn the manifest will of the Honduran electorate, the Honduran Supreme Court, and the Honduran military: fucking legit.

References and previously after the jump...