An American Not in Paris: Where Was the Civil Rights Icon of Our Age?

Barack Obama, the avatar of civil rights for our generation, could not break his empty Sunday schedule to attend the “Je Suis Charlie” rally in Paris, which drew 40 world leaders and more than a million people, to stand up for free speech and religious liberty. The White House now says he should have sent someone with more heft than his former campaign bundler, the French ambassador. Is this another Obama blunder, or is he smarter than all of us — or at least smarter than Stephen Green, Scott Ott and Stephen Kruiser?