Mitt Romney just fired two warning shots in a single Washington Post column, one across Obama's bow, and the other one aimed at the mullahs' mad rush to nuclear weapons.

I don't know if Romney's The One -- I'm not a big fan of messianic politicians. What's important is that Romney has opened up on Obama for clowning around with the most lethal danger to the civilized world --- the one the radical left has denied, covered up, and lied about ever since Jimmy Carter.

That's 30 years of willful disinformation from the radical left --- all of it leading the world to the very brink of nuclear conflagration.

Romney seems to get that all right.

Writes Romney,

"Beginning Nov. 4, 1979 , dozens of U.S. diplomats were held hostage by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries for 444 days while America's feckless president, Jimmy Carter, fretted in the White House. Running for the presidency against Carter the next year, Ronald Reagan made it crystal clear that the Iranians would pay a very stiff price for continuing their criminal behavior. On Jan. 20, 1981, in the hour that Reagan was sworn into office, Iran released the hostages. The Iranians well understood that Reagan was serious about turning words into action in a way that Jimmy Carter never was.

"America and the world face a strikingly similar situation today; only even more is at stake. The same Islamic fanatics who took our diplomats hostage are racing to build a nuclear bomb. Barack Obama, America's most feckless president since Carter, has declared such an outcome unacceptable, but his rhetoric has not been matched by an effective policy. While Obama frets in the White House, the Iranians are making rapid progress toward obtaining the most destructive weapons in the history of the world."

Bingo! Got it in one.

Even the German socialist weekly Die Welt just reported that two years ago Iran conducted an explosive nuclear test in North Korea, based on a Swedish report of airborne radioactive particles detected in 2010.

And the United Nations' inspectors have just been rebuffed by the mullahs, after trying to inspect another advanced nuclear production.

But Our Hero Barack Obama has told the world that "too much loose talk on Iran" just strengthens the bad guys.

"Wrong, Radioactivity Breath," as Johnny Carson might have put it.

Obama just made the infantile error of "mistaking the fire for the fire brigade" as Winston Churchill put it in the 1930s.

That was 80 years ago, but human nature hasn't changed. The wishy-washies still live in denial, but the technology of mass destruction is 80 years beyond the 1930s. Churchill had months to watch Hitler invade Poland, Czechoslovakia and France, time to prepare, encounter major defeats, and finally turn things around. But months have now been reduced to minutes.

Maybe Obama should ask the British to please, please, send back that Churchill bust to the White House. The world would be a much safer place if our dangerously incompetent CIA and foreign policy establishment had raised the alarm years ago, before Iran buried and dispersed its nuclear industry. In the nuclear age there is no time to respond. There is only time to preempt.

Today Iran's nuke factories are much harder to knock out than when Obama got elected.

And no, it's not just Israel that's in danger. That's just another self-delusion for useful idiots. The same missiles that are threatening Israel are right next door to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the vital lifelines for oil to Europe and Asia, and southern Russia. Ballistic missiles that can reach Tel Aviv in fifteen minutes can get to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in only five. Once they are in orbit, New York City is only another fifteen minutes' away. Nobody knows if our missile defense is enough to counter that threat. Missile defense has never been tested in practice.

I don't know if Romney is the best candidate for president today, but I'm very sure that we need an adult. Any of the Republicans running today are better at facing reality than any of the Democrats. Realism is only the first step to dealing with Islamic fascists with nukes. But it's the essential first step.

We don't need a messianic demagogue for president. We need a realist.

Romney, Newt and Santorum are all adults compared to this self-deluded administration.

As for Obama, he has now missed that crucial last window of opportunity. He has missed his chance to live up to the president's first responsibility, to protect the safety and security of the United States of America.

No president should ever allow things to get to this point.

We can't tell if it's too late. Nobody knows. The CIA has been wrong about nuclear weapons every single time, from Jozef Stalin to North Korea.

Every single time. So don't believe their guesswork.

Iranian nuclear weapons and missiles may already be out of control, just like North Korea's.

The hour is late. The danger is great.

This is a time for adults.

That leaves out all the Democrats.