One of the great myths of the Bush presidency is that he alienated the world. The truth: He pissed off the right people (Iran, the despot coddlers of the U.N. and global despots in general ... and, of course, the global left). He had a great relationship with America's traditional allies — good enough to get a NATO force into the Afghanistan campaign. Britain, Australia, Japan and Korea, meanwhile, joined the war on terror with no hesitation. And the former Eastern Bloc loved Bush.

Obama on Tour: And they made a big deal about Bush's golf schedule.

It should also be noted that the lifeless political bodies of anti-American European leaders abound — in France and Germany, especially. (Yes. Spain is an exception, but Aznar was an early and loyal ally to Bush's government when smart people on this side of the pond said all of Europe was opposed to Bush.) Funny how these facts are never mentioned much by the left that trumped the "restore our respect in the world" meme. And let's not fail to mention the Dutch, as well as Colombia.

Anyway, Obama was going to fix all that. Regain America's reputation in world opinion and get "serious" with our enemies. It's funny what unfolds when you set out to "fix" a myth. Obama snubs Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He sends Hillary to Russia with a ceremonial "reset" button that was a bad joke before the "best and brightest" of the new State Department screwed up the translation. And we coddle Syria and Iran while ....

Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi cut short his visit to Washington after getting an extraordinarily cool reception from the new U.S. administration.

Last year, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi had no problem setting up meetings with top officials in the U.S. government.

On his current trip to Washington, Ashkenazi sought to meet the administration of President Barack Obama, but most officials were unavailable.

Didn't he get the memo? Obama's out of town. Conducting an embarrassing interview with Jay Leno is way more important than treating our greatest Middle East ally with respect. Oh, as for Russia? They respond to the "reset button" by buzzing the towers of our Navy's ships.

Obamateur Hour continues. Our president was unavailable to comment, as he was having makeup applied in the Tonight Show's green room.

(HT: ExUrb Jon, via Twitter.)