News outlets are delighted that President Obama posed as The Great Listener in his interview al-Arabiya TV. ABC’s World Newser blog crowed: “The U.S. message shifts from ‘You are either with us or against us’ to ‘All too often the United States starts by dictating … and we don’t always know all the factors that are involved. So let’s listen.’”

Obama’s “I’m no ugly, dictating American, like Bush” schtick sends media pulses racing. But if this approach works, why didn’t “listening” work for 444 days of Americans in Iranian captivity under Jimmy Carter? Why didn’t “listening” work during Bill Clinton’s last desperate push for a Nobel Peace Prize? Why didn’t Yasser Arafat ever really stop pushing terror? Here’s a bigger chunk of Obama’s we’ll-just-listen vibe:

And so what I told him [envoy George Mitchell] is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating — in the past on some of these issues — and we don’t always know all the factors that are involved. So let’s listen. He’s going to be speaking to all the major parties involved. And he will then report back to me. From there we will formulate a specific response.
Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what’s best for them. They’re going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people. And that instead, it’s time to return to the negotiating table…
And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there’s a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs.

Obama also painted George Mitchell as a global giant, a diplomat of “enormous stature … This is somebody with extraordinary patience as well as extraordinary skill.” No one in our media ever seems to hold Democrats accountable when their bowing and “listening” and their lack of “preconceptions” leads to more terrorism against Americans or Israel and other allies. Clinton’s Middle Eastern diplomacy didn’t stop al-Qaeda attacks on American targets–and it obviously didn’t stop the planning for 9/11.