All the comparisons to FDR have faded away, Conrad Black writes in his assessment of President Obama’s first six months in office. Last week was particularly difficult for the new administration, Reuters reports, as the president got caught up in a racially charged controversy, even as he was trying to salvage his now vulnerable universal health-care plan.

Obama’s soaring rhetoric helped him win the presidency and propelled his first months in Washington. But despite his frequent speeches declaring a health-care revamp is urgently needed to help rebuild the U.S. economy, Americans are still expressing some uncertainty.

Last week, the president saw his overall approval ratings dip below 50 percent for the first time. According to Rasmussen, 76 percent of Americans now see President Obama as politically liberal, which is 11 points higher than when he was elected. Forty-eight percent consider him “very liberal”—20 points higher than what it was in November.

In his column, Black highlights numerous reasons why Americans are becoming increasingly worried about the direction of their country:

The country is sailing into uncharted waters and gigantic waves with projected trillion-dollar annual deficits for the next decade. All the celebrations of a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate (after the brazen theft of the Minnesota Senate election by leftist comedian Al Franken) will not mitigate the public’s eroding confidence in the administration; nor their misgivings about higher taxes, bone-crushing deficits, and socialized, coercive, health care.

Despite the many campaign promises of “almost painless change,” Black concludes, it’s certainly been a rocky start for the new administration.

A “Teachable Moment” About Race in America

Both President Obama and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. say that Gates’s arrest this past week supplied the nation a “teachable moment” about race in America. We agree.

First, we find it remarkable that this quite minor incident—where a misunderstanding led to an arguably questionable arrest that was quickly reversed, and in which the racial motivation of the police officer wasn’t overt, if it existed at all—has been the biggest race story of Obama’s presidency. Given some of the racially charged moments in the presidential campaign (particularly surrounding Jeremiah Wright), the past six months have been remarkably calm on this front.

Second, this incident does reveal how explosive the subject of race remains in America. We at the Trumpet are interested in the subject because of biblical prophecies that strongly indicate race problems growing violent and even deadly in America in our day. Thus, as welcome as six months of relative racial calm are, sadly we don’t expect that to continue.

Professor Gates and the president are convinced this case illustrates a pervasive problem of racial profiling. Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer, has taught classes on how to avoid racial profiling for five years. He has an impeccable record with no hint of any racial biases. Yet to his detractors, that is simply evidence of how deep-rooted his racism really is.

Professor Gates himself says that the individual who called the police when seeing him and his driver trying to pry open his jammed front door did the right thing. But when Sergeant Crowley responded to the report, Gates accused, “Is this how you treat a black man in America?” Gates later called Sgt. James Crowley a “rogue policeman” who “couldn’t stand a black man standing up for his rights.” Crowley “presumed that I was guilty because I was black,” Gates assumes. “There was no doubt about that.”

In speaking to the press about the incident shortly afterward, the president was quick to link it with America’s history of racial profiling. “There is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately,” he explained. In clarifying his remarks on Friday, he said: “Because of our history, because of the difficulties of the past, African-Americans are sensitive to these issues. And even when you’ve got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity, interactions between police officers and the African-American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.”

It’s sad but true. A policeman with a fine track record on racial sensitivity responding to a report of burglary can be accused of racism. He can be pilloried nationally—even by the president—for not meekly submitting to these belligerent accusations. Fraught with misunderstanding indeed.

This truly was a “teachable moment.” It teaches us how easy it would be for even minor incidents and misunderstandings to open the door to viler and even violent expressions of racial hatred. Read our article “Will a Black President Heal America’s Race Wounds?” for more on the Bible’s prophecies on race relations.

Washington Tightens Screws on Israel

President Obama is sending four of his most senior foreign-policy officials to Israel this week to reiterate two demands: Stop all construction in the West Bank and do not launch a preemptive strike against Iran. “Both issues have provoked angry Israeli complaints that America is reneging on agreements,” the Times of London notes today.

Last week officials on both sides engaged in an exchange of public irritation as Israel’s concerns about a nuclear Iran clashed with Washington’s need for demonstrable progress on a peace plan.

The article points to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent remark that if Israel refrains from bombing Iran, it would be shielded from a possible Iranian attack by a U.S. “defense umbrella.”

Today, on Meet the Press, Clinton’s rhetoric was much tougher on Iran: “What we want to do is to send a message to whoever is making these decisions, that if you’re pursuing nuclear weapons for the purpose of intimidating, of projecting your power, we’re not going to let that happen.”

The reality, though, is that preparations in Washington are now well under way to accept Iran’s application for membership into the nuclear weapons club.

Israelis have good reason to be angry.

The Incredible Shrinking British Economy

Britain’s economy contracted by an astonishing 5.6 percent during the second quarter—twice as bad as many analysts had predicted, the Washington Post reported yesterday. “The data in Britain—the first major industrialized economy to post second-quarter figures,” the Post noted,

also illustrated how its recession appears to be deeper and potentially more protracted than the downturns facing many of its neighbors. The gloom there came even as a smattering of moderately positive data emerged in other parts of Europe on Friday. German investor sentiment, for instance, notched up to its highest level since October.

Britain is in the midst of its worst recession in at least 30 years.

Elsewhere on the Web

The Jerusalem Post reported Friday that the United States will transfer $200 million to the Palestinian Authority. Aid given to the pa, which comes from a multitude of states, is supposed to bolster the wobbly administration of pa President Mahmoud Abbas. But the pa is not the moderate, Western-friendly administration the international community likes to think it is. Earlier this month, for example, it met for the first time with Iran, the world’s number-one state sponsor of terrorism.