The Anchoress asks, “Does Obama know who we are?”

The cruelest, most violent Samurai in Japan decides he wants to become enlightened. He bursts into the home of an esteemed Zen Master and demands that the Master teach him how to become enlightened.

The Zen Master looks deeply into his eyes and says, “No. You are a dirty, vicious Samurai. I will not teach you.”

Enraged, the Samurai yanks out his sword and places it right at the Zen Master’s neck. He hollers, “Do you have any idea who I am? I am the cruelest Samurai in the world. I can cut your throat and not blink an eye.”

Without skipping a beat, the Master calmly responds, “Do you have any idea who I am? I can let you slit my throat and not blink an eye.”

The Samurai falls to his knees, sobbing, overcome by the presence of a man mightier than his sword.

I get the impression that President Obama would like very much to say to those Americans and traditional allies who are not falling for him, “Do you know who I am?”

I wish he would, because the response would be: “Do you know who you are?”

Messrs. Brooks, Buckley the Younger, the staff at the Economist, Harpers, and other publications have spent most of 2009 waking up to the fact that there’s no there there inside the man they so heavily invested in last year. So it’s worth flashing back to a key quote from the campaign trail:

The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of “personal discovery.”

As the Professor has written, “As always, it’s a question of who the rubes are.”