Et tu, NYT?

Even the notoriously slanted New York Times is starting to notice the disparity in depth between McCain and Obama’s reactions to the Russia/Georgia conflict.

McCain Displays Credentials as Obama Relaxes

HONOLULU — For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Only once, at the beginning of the week, did Mr. Obama discuss the fighting in public, when he emerged from his beachfront rental home to condemn Russia’s escalation, in a way that seemed timed for the evening television news. He took no questions whose answers might demonstrate command of the issue.

Mr. McCain and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, “We are all Georgians.”

Of course, after a good start, the editorial degenerates into making annoying excuses for Obama:

Still, some Hawaii residents and political observers acknowledged that exotic impressions of the islands have become mythology among Americans, making it one of the most unlikely places for a presidential candidate to call home.

Perhaps that is why Mr. Obama has played down his Hawaiian roots, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Obama’s biographical narrative has focused on his mother from Kansas and father from Kenya, and less on his time in Oahu.

“When you’re being accused of being an elitist,” Ms. Jamieson said, “and when people are using code words such as ‘exotic’ in order to describe you and your background, you would not want to locate your biography in Hawaii, if you had a choice.”

Riiight … the observation, supported by facts, that Obama’s foreign policy is uninformed and timid has nothing to do with it. All you voters are just stupid and distracted by the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii. Sorry, even if Obama was vacationing in Oklahoma, I would continue to be under whelmed by his non-statements on the developing events.

PS: McCain was born in frickin’ Panama for gosh sakes.