Out Of Step

On Sunday, January 11, 2014, the people of Paris held a massive march to express their solidarity against terrorism.

Major world leaders - including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - joined Parisians in the march.

Leaders from one country, alas, were conspicuously absent.  Specifically, this country.

Neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden found the time to attend, nor did Secretary of State John Kerry, who excused himself by saying he was honoring a pre-arranged trip to India.  Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris, but he apparently skipped town before the rally.  The United States of America, the self-proclaimed Greatest Nation on Earth, was represented at the Paris march by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, neither one of whom are exactly household names. 

If the United States can't find any heavyweights to go to Paris to march in solidarity against terrorism, how can we Americans expect to find any monarchs, presidents of prime ministers willing to march in solidarity with us in the streets of New York or Washington if there's ever another major terrorist attack in either city?    

The White House blew it.  And they knew it.