So called “smart power” strikes again - and shows itself  to be embarrassingly dumb.

There is a great deal of focus on the Middle Easy and has been for years. One would hope our leadership would have at least the basics down. Not true.

T. Becket Adams of the Washington Examiner reports on the latest gaffe by the best and the brightest of the Obama team

As the Obama White House continues to flesh out its strategy for combating the Islamic State, the terrorist group that has claimed much of Iraq and Syria, rest assured knowing that the U.S. is in the best of hands.

Or maybe not.

Consider the following statement, which was made Thursday by a senior White House official during a conference call [emphasis added]:

I guess I would just add one thing on the coalition question — and I think this is important to really focus on, which is to say, in discussions with governments in the region, notably the Saudis and the Jordanians, what is clear is that we have a very common view of this threat. And this is really quite unusual. ISIL has been I think a galvanizing threat around the Sunni partners in the region.

They view it as an existential threat to them. Saudi Arabia has an extensive border with Syria. The Jordanians are experiencing a destabilizing impact of over a million refugees from the Syrian conflict, and are profoundly concerned that ISIL, who has stated that their ambitions are not confined to Iraq and Syria, but rather to expand to the broader region.

Oh, dear.

Here, let’s clear up exactly what’s incorrect in that statement, which was prompted by a larger discussion on the Obama administration's attempts to recruit allies to help it fight the Islamic State:

Can’t they find some maps somewhere? Isn’t there a globe in the Oval Office? Do people know how to google? Why do we spend tens of billions of dollars for intelligence when our leaders are so dumb?

But, as is said of fish, the rot starts at the head.

After all,  according to President Obama they speak Austrian in Austria; the US has 58 states; Hawaii is in Asia (and he grew up there); this basic geography error - from someone who spent years in Illinois –yet. The stolen red “reset” button has a wrong Russian translation attached to it. Recall how George W. Bush was mercilessly ridiculed for his malapropisms? Recall Dan Quayle - potato vs potatoe faux controversy? Yet, Obama was called “the smartest president” ever to reside in the White House. On his own, without a teleprompter, the greatest speechmaker of our time, stammers away.

A chauffeur (Tommy “Hey, dude, that was two years” Vietor) becomes National Security spokesman; a failed fiction writer becomes the key man formulating foreign policy; Valerie Jarrett is a senior adviser and also the worst White House staffer with a “perfect record of giving bad advice “; David Axelrod, a campaign strategist, advised  on foreign policy and terrorism issues; a campaign hack, Jen Psaki, becomes State Department spokeswoman, tweet/ hashtag addict  and international embarrassment; Biden s a one-man gaffe machine; our Director of National Intelligence declares the Muslim Brotherhood is mostly secular.

Even liberal columnist New York Times Roger Cohen is appalled at the team of sycophants and idolizers Obama has chosen to lead his administration and America -.into the ditch.

In the words of my favorite political commentator and pundit, Forrest Gump, “Stupid Is As Stupid Does." That should be the motto on the current presidential seal.

We are in the best of hands.