As Obama sits back and watches as President Sarkozy of France takes over the leadership of the free world, his inaction seems to be having the effect of encouraging Gaddafi to hang on in Libya.

The Washington Post:

"WE HAVE ALREADY engineered the most rapid and forceful set of sanctions that have ever been applied internationally," President Obama boasted last week in one of his rare public statements about Libya. The accuracy of that claim is open to question; but whether or not it set a record, the administration's response to Moammar Gaddafi seems to be having the effect of encouraging him to wage a civil war while locking in the military advantage he holds.

Mr. Obama followed European leaders in declaring that Mr. Gaddafi must be removed from power; a White House account of his telephone call Tuesday with British Prime Minister David Cameron said "the common objective in Libya must be an immediate end to brutality and violence [and] the departure of Gaddafi from power as quickly as possible." At the same time a U.N. Security Council resolution passed on Feb. 26 referred Mr. Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court for prosecution, meaning that he is likely to be subject to arrest if he leaves Libya.

[...]

It's beginning to look as if what Mr. Obama has "engineered" is a situation in which the United States and its closest allies have declared that a dictator must go "as quickly as possible" - and have not only constrained themselves from ensuring that outcome but are actively hindering it by refusing to provide arms to the opposition. So far the United States has not even recognized the opposition administration set up in Benghazi - even though the White House has said repeatedly that Mr. Gaddafi's regime is no longer legitimate.

Mr. Obama, who skipped a meeting of his top aides on Libya Wednesday, may hope that the Libyan rebels will defeat the Gaddafi forces without outside help - or that other Western governments will provide the leadership that he is shunning. Meetings of NATO, the European Union and the Arab League in the next several days may produce decisions that loosen the straitjacket the administration has applied to itself. If not, the world will watch as Mr. Gaddafi continues to massacre his people, while an American president who said that he must go fails to implement any strategy for making that happen.

Ace of Spades asks the question:

A Republican candidate for President should ask: For $400,000 per year in salary, what are we actually getting? Is he actually doing his job? Couldn't anyone do what Obama has done? Put anyone in the office, someone unqualified and well over their heads, and they'd do the same thing, sit back, let other people handle it.

Obama believes his hanging back is winning him points from people who hate America. He is actually listening to the propaganda being spouted by thugs and dictators - or Euro-whiners. The fact is, Europeans may complain loudly about American unilateralism but when push comes to shove, who do you think they want out front? To be taken in by this nonsensical idea that if only America played well with others and let the UN take the lead on everything, the world would be a better place, is the height of naivete and extraordinarily dangerous.

Nothing to be done but watch this train wreck of a presidency play itself out.