When President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit,” he meant it in the most positive sense. He believed that the presidency was an excellent platform from which to articulate a belief or a position. How unfortunate it is, then, that our current president just wasted a fabulous opportunity to use the bully pulpit to accomplish something good, both for his presidency and for the country.

The recent kerfuffle over the proposed mosque at ground zero constitutes an unforced error for Obama. He came out in favor of the mosque at a Ramadan dinner on Friday and then had to walk it all back on Saturday. This in face of the fact that over two-thirds of Americans oppose the idea of a mosque at ground zero for no other reason that a mosque at ground zero is in horrible taste.

Yes, the proponents of the mosque have the right to build it there but that doesn’t mean that they should. All President Obama had to do to win on this issue was simply say just that. In November 2008 most of us in East Texas voted against Obama because he is too liberal. Today, if we had to vote again, based on episodes like this one, we’d vote against him because he is tone deaf to the point of incompetence.