The New York Post’s editors: “And this week, after the UN Security Council adopted an anti-nuclear-proliferation ‘resolution’ that left out any mention of Iran, it took French President Nicolas Sarkozy to express shock: ‘How,’ he asked ‘could we justify meeting without tackling’ Iran’s nukes? Now, in light of yesterday’s revelation, Obama’s nine-month course seems almost suicidal. Surely this second site means Iran is closer to having a bomb than most knew. That it’s on a military base makes it harder for Iran to claim it’s for peaceful purposes—and perhaps tougher to take out by force, if need be. And the secrecy around it proves that Iran won’t ever ‘talk’ honestly with the ‘international community.’ Let’s face it: Negotiating isn’t likely to work. Obama needs a Plan B. Pronto.”

Rep. Howard Berman sounds the alarm: “Tehran could soon have humankind’s most frightening weapon if substantial diplomatic progress is not made in the coming days.” (Notice “days” is his time frame—he must not have heard about the “let’s see where we are at the end of the year” Obama time frame.) “To have a sanctions bill ready for the president’s signature by early next year, we must start the process for passing it now. I intend to bring our bill to committee for consideration next month. Should negotiations with Iran not succeed and should multilateral sanctions not get off the ground, we must be prepared to do what we can on our own.” Odd how the president isn’t calling for this to strengthen his own hand, isn’t it? Apparently the president must have leverage to use with Iran forced upon him.

Newsflash: It’s not easy to close Guantanamo. “President Barack Obama may not be able to meet his stated goal of closing the much-criticized Guantanamo Bay prison by January as his administration runs into daunting legal and logistical hurdles to moving the more than 220 detainees still there. Senior administration officials acknowledged for the first time Friday that difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and resolving other thorny questions mean the president’s promised January deadline may slip.”

Michael Gerson on Obama’s UN speech: “At the United Nations, Obama set out to denigrate American goodness so he can become our rescuer. The speech had nothing to do with the confident style of Democratic rhetoric found in Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. It insulted that tradition. And no one is likely ever to quote the speech—except to deride it.” Read the whole thing.

Democrats have incurred the wrath of seniors who have figured out that their benefits are going to get slashed under ObamaCare. So they are “scrambling to prove they are on the side of seniors.” They better scramble some more—by a margin of 59 to 31 percent, seniors oppose it. “What seems certain, however, is that Democrats’ ability to push through a health overhaul along the lines of what Obama has called for will depend in large part on their capacity to convince seniors that it’s a good deal for them.”

Mickey Kaus thinks ObamaCare has found its death panel—the voters: “If voters oppose by a 64-34 margin a health care bill with individual mandates but no public option, doesn’t that mean voters will oppose by a 64-34 margin any health care bill that is likely to pass? … That would put Obama’s reform up in Dick Morris’ the-Democratic-party-isn’t-a-suicide-pact range.”

Marty Peretz: “The UN is a joke. If it weren’t in New York no one would come. As an instrument of peace it fails every time. At its best, it is mostly charade, like Ban Ki-moon designating Bill Clinton as the organization’s special envoy to Haiti. ‘Special envoy,’ my foot. But Susan Rice seems to feel at home at the United Nations. ‘Google’ her and read any of her nonsense about the organization. Any of it. If you don’t laugh you’ll cry. Either way your response will be appropriate.” Unfortunately, Obama believes her nonsense.

Mark McKinnon: “It’s pretty embarrassing when a Chinese president lectures an American president about free trade on his home turf. In a direct shot at his U.S. counterpart, President Hu Jintao Friday at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh called on his fellow leaders to ‘resolutely oppose and reject protectionism in all forms.’ Because President Obama hasn’t.”

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