There was a headline last week: “Obama’s ratings plummet in Arab World.” (Article here.) Obama’s ratings are below those of George W. Bush, when that much maligned president left office.

I couldn’t help thinking of something that Obama said during the ’08 campaign: “I truly believe that the day I’m inaugurated . . . not only does the country look at itself differently, but the world looks at America differently.” The candidate went on, “The world will have confidence that I am listening to them, and that our future and our security is tied up with our ability to work with other countries in the world.”

Was Obama an egomaniac or a fool? The thing about egomania, it tends to make one look foolish, among other things.

An Associated Press report about Syria bears attention. Tens of thousands marched through Damascus shouting “We want freedom!” You know what I think these Arabs mean when they shout “We want freedom!”? Oddly enough, I think they mean “We want freedom!”

Haitham al-Maleh said something rather moving. He is an 80-year-old lawyer and dissident, who has spent time in Syrian jails. He recently left his country “out of fear for his life,” as the AP says.

Anyway, Maleh was in Turkey, attending a conference. And he said, “The regime” — meaning the Assad dictatorship — has “kidnapped the entire state, and we want it back.” He also called the dictatorship a “fascist regime.”

Which is exactly what it is.

Let me do some quoting of that report:

Saturday’s opposition conference in Turkey — called the National Salvation Conference — was attended by some 400 dissidents looking to form a unified opposition to Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.

Some more:

Organizers had planned to hold a conference in Damascus in tandem with the Turkey meeting, but it was canceled after Friday’s bloodshed. The Local Coordination Committees said at least 14 people were killed near a hall where the conference was to be held.

Think of the bravery — the reckless, nearly mad bravery — of those people for getting anywhere near that hall.

One more excerpt, please:

Opposition figure Mashaal Tammo, addressing the conference by phone from Damascus, said Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule and called on him to step down.

In an emotional speech, he said the “the existence of the regime was no longer justified,” and called for a peaceful transition to a civil, pluralistic and democratic state.

These people are really not much different from you and me, in their desires and hopes. People will spend all their time — using their very last breath — to tell you it isn’t so. That these Arabs belong to a different species, really. You don’t have to believe them.

And, if you can — go discover for yourselves. Not Syria, just now. But the Middle East in general.

Ron Prosor was Israel’s ambassador to Britain for four years. Last month, on leaving, he published an article in the Telegraph. Here is part of what he said:

In Syria, Bashar al-Assad, the London-educated ophthalmologist with a blind spot for terror, is crushing the vision of unarmed protesters. Yet on the streets and campuses of Britain, Assad will never receive the level of vitriolic condemnation for slaughtering his citizens that Israel receives for defending ours.

You got that right, baby.

Frankly, I’m not really sure what “blind spot for terror” means. It seems to me that Assad relishes terror, eyes wide open. I imagine I just have a blind spot when it comes to Ambassador Prosor’s wording.

Oh, hang on, I get it — must be some joke with “ophthalmologist.” Still . . .

As President Obama shuffles the Dalai Lama in and out of the White House, with no media permitted, I think back to Obama’s predecessor, glorious in so many ways. Here was a president who had the spine to appear with the Tibetan leader in public. In fact, he traveled to the Capitol Rotunda, to see the Dalai Lama receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

Want to see W. and the lama grinning together, enjoying life together? Check it out.

Beautiful.