What this actually confirms is Obama’s lifelong, apparently irresistible attraction to a succession of losers, radicals and criminals. Sometimes as father figures, sometimes not. He has always rejected the successful and well-adjusted people around him in favor of others like this.

We should not forget how strange this is, especially in a politician. He is anodyne on the outside and very odd on the inside.

The person he still seems to be searching for through all this is his father. When we consider how utterly irresponsible, self-destructive and disastrous for all those around him his father turned out to be, this should give us pause. I for one hope Obama never locates his father’s spirit while he has control over a local community action project, let alone the armed forces of the United States.