9-11, THE MIXED MESSAGES – AT 10:33 P.M. ET:  By reasonably common consent, today's was the most contentious of the 9-11 commemorations.  Is it entirely coincidental that division has increased on the watch of Barack Obama?  I don't think so.

The Politico, which tilts somewhat left, tries to put the best face on Obama's performance today:

President Barack Obama used the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to try to reduce the temperature on a pair of heated controversies over Islam and religious tolerance, even as others staged rallies that could further inflame the very tensions Obama tried to avert.

Speaking at a memorial service Saturday morning, Obama seemed eager to stem what some polls show is rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, nine years after Islamic terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda hijacked four passenger planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York, the third into the Pentagon, and plunging the fourth into a field in rural Shanksville, Pa.

What polls are those?  The polls I've seen show opposition to the building of the mosque at Ground Zero, but no great wave of anti-Muslim hatred.  This is an example of a generation of reporters trained to believe that America is a racist society.  Even after the election of Barack Obama, the party line remains. 

After a week in which an obscure Florida pastor drew his attention for his plans to desecrate Qurans - stoking a still-simmering controversy over plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero in New York - Obama called for national unity.

If Obama really wants unity, he might do a little work toward that end.  Insulting the 70% of Americans who oppose the location of the mosque doesn't lead to unity.  Declaring that America is at war only with Al Qaeda, when we know that Al Qaeda is only the tip of the terror iceberg, also doesn't lead to unity.  Nor does going around the world bowing to Saudi potentates and apologizing for the United States.

Obama is reflecting the behavior of America's chattering class in his patronizing comments about unity.  It has now become trendy among the drawing room/faculty room axis to say that America overreacted to 9-11, that we have temper tantrums, that we really aren't sophisticated enough for this world.  There are probably plenty of people around Obama, like Samantha Power, who think that.

And, of course, TIME, one of the kingpins of establishment journalism, has pretty much declared America to be Islamophobic.  You may be sure that TIME's writers and editors will now get even more party invitations. 

I'm afraid unity is a long way off.  But if you want to look at the major source of disunity, look no further than the man in the White House, and the establishment he leads.

September 11, 2010