And hours after this post went up, former Vice President Dick Cheney emerged from his hole and condemned Obama in a statement to his favorite stenographers at Politico: “ [W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” Cheney said. “Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society.” Cheney also seems to be criticizing Obama for trying Abdulmutallab in criminal court — "He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war" — even though the Bush administration did the same with Reid and crowed about his conviction.

Too often Politico seems to see its mission as being an opposition mouthpiece in the age of Obama, but credit where it's due: Josh Gerstein wrote the best analysis of the difference between Obama's treatment and Bush's, "President Obama Takes the Heat President Bush Did Not." Gerstein notes that Bush never made a formal statement about the scare, but merely added a remark in a press conference on other matters. Among the media, only Agence France Presse bothered to remark on Bush's silence, Gerstein found, and Democrats had no comment at all about the president's handling of the threat.

We all understand what makes the right-wing noise machine attack Obama now, but what's the excuse for the New York Times and other media? It's partly that Bush was still wearing his post-9/11 halo, when media and Democrats were loath to criticize him for anything. It may also be our sped-up media cycle, eight years later.

It's probably relevant that Bush was enjoying his highest approval ratings, ever, while Obama's are his lowest, and there seems to be a kind of momentum to negative media coverage when a president hits a rough patch. There may well be fair criticism of the Obama administration when all the facts come out, although whatever happens, it will also be true that the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies the Bush administration assembled to track and find and thwart the bad guys didn't work. Intelligence failures are usually bipartisan problems, given that so many of the players are careerists.

But so far the partisan and media reactions to Obama feel predictably negative, and unfair. Meanwhile, as television, print and Web journalists pore over every fact about Abdulmutallab's confused journey to jihad, there's relatively scant coverage of our escalating attacks on Yemen.

Finally — and this is the sort of thing you're not allowed to say if you are, as Glenn Greenwald notes, a Serious Journalist — but every time I see Abdulmutallab's face I'm struck by how young and vulnerable he looks. His troubled Web writings left the same impression. I'm not sure what that means. He is, increasingly, the face of young militants — the product of a good home and education, even wealth, not of slums and deprivation (although the poverty and chaos of Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia certainly contribute to al-Qaida's strength and appeal there). Abdulmutallab reminds me more of a troubled American school shooter than, say, Mohammed Atta. Al-Qaida's appeal to such lost souls may well be high, but it's a misery that crosses boundaries of religion and race.

Predictably right-wing gas bags are as hung up on Obama calling Abdulmutallab an "extremist" and not a "terrorist," as they were about the administration (and some of the media's) failure to brand Fort Hood killer Maj. Nidal Hasan with the same label. Appallingly to the right, some coverage of Hassan's horrific assault focused on his mental health problems, and the signs of psychological trouble that his colleagues and superiors either missed or ignored. "Terrorist" provides a label that absolves us from paying attention to things like mental illness — let alone whether our expanding war against Islam might be creating more "terrorists" than it's killing.

That's all too complicated: Let's just focus on why Obama took so long to talk about Abdulmutallab, OK? Then nobody needs to really think about what we're up against in any meaningful way.

""[T]here were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together," Obama said. "When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable."

His full remarks:

Yesterday, I updated the American people on the immediate steps we took, the increased screening and security of air travel to keep our country safe in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

And I announced two reviews, a review of our terrorist watch list system and a review of our air travel screening so we can find out what went wrong, fix it, and prevent future attacks. Those reviews began on Sunday and are now underway.

Earlier today, I issued the former guidelines for those reviews and directed the preliminary findings be provided to the White House by this Thursday. It's essential that we diagnose the problems quickly and deal with them immediately.

Now, the more comprehensive formal reviews and recommendations for improvement will be completed in the coming weeks. And I'm committed to working with Congress and our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security communities to take all necessary steps to protect the country.

I wanted to speak to the American people again today, because some of this preliminary information that has surfaced in the last 24 hours raises some serious concerns. It's been widely reported that the father of the suspect in the Christmas incident warned U.S. officials in Africa about his son's extremist views.

It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list.

There appears to be other deficiencies, as well. Even without this one report, there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together.

We've achieved much since 9/11 in terms of collecting information that relates to terrorists and potential terrorist attacks, but it's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have.

Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence, and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America.

Now, the professionalism of the men and women in our intelligence, counterterrorism, and law enforcement, and homeland security communities is extraordinary. They are some of the most hard-working, most dedicated Americans that I've ever met. In pursuit of our security here at home, they risk their lives day in, day out in this country and around the world. Few Americans see their work, but all Americans are safer because of their successes.

They have targeted and taken out violent extremists. They have disrupted plots and saved countless American lives. They are making real and daily progress in our mission to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaida and other extremist networks around the world. And for this, every American owes them a profound and lasting debt of gratitude. Moreover, as Secretary Napolitano has said, once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, after his attempt, it's clear that passengers and crew, our homeland security systems, and our aviation security took all appropriate actions.

But what's also clear is this: When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable.

The reviews I've ordered will surely tell us more, but what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.

I fully understand that even when every person charged with ensuring our security does what they are trained to do, even when every system works exactly as intended, there's still no 100 percent guarantee of success. Yet this should only compel us to work even harder, to be even more innovative and relentless in our efforts.

As president, I will do everything in my power to support the men and women in intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security to make sure they've got the tools and resources they need to keep America safe, but it's also my job to ensure that our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security systems and the people in them are working effectively and held accountable. I intend to fulfill that responsibility and insist on accountability at every level.

That's the spirit guiding our reviews into the attempted attack on Christmas Day. That's the spirit that will guide all our efforts in the days and years ahead. Thank you very much.

The fact is, blundering the interpretation of genuine terror data, and spinning the blunders after any scary threat, is a bipartisan game. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have perfect records when it comes to keeping us safe. But the GOP is proving itself far more willing than Democrats to play politics after a terror incident, which is a shame, because it means that political ass-covering may drain energy that ought to go to national security. DeMint had the gall to blame the administration: Its allegedly "soft talk about engagement, closing Gitmo — these things are not going to appease the terrorists," he said. "They’re going to keep coming after us," DeMint told Fox News, "and we can’t have politics as usual in Washington, and I’m afraid that’s what we’ve got right now with airport security."

Even I think Obama should have spoken publicly about the incident earlier than today, but I'm relieved that, unlike press secretary Robert Gibbs and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the president didn't pretend that the security system "worked" to thwart the Christmas Day bombing attempt. He promised a review of the watch-list system, in the wake of news that Abdulmutallab's father had warned U.S. and British officials of his son's radicalization. The British were so concerned they denied him a visa and put him on their no-fly list. In the U.S., the 23-year-old Nigerian merely went on a watch list with half a million other names, so officials could investigate whether any future student visa requests could be denied. It's important to get to the bottom of why the U.S. and British responses to the information were so different.

The bigger question is how the U.S. should respond to increasing evidence that Yemen is re-emerging as an al-Qaida base. Even before the Christmas Day bombing, the growing al-Qaida presence there led to two airstrikes against reported terror leaders last week that reportedly killed civilians. On Monday al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula/Yemen claimed credit for Abdulmutallab's attempted terror strike, and said it was intended to retaliate for those attacks. (That particular part of the claim was undermined by evidence that the Nigerian purchased his plane ticket Dec. 15.) But it's impossible to deny that attacks on Yemen encouraged or led by the U.S. are likely to radicalize more civilians. Glenn Greenwald did a prescient interview with Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen about al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula on Dec. 24. It's a must-read now that the group has claimed credit for the near-bombing.

When Obama warned "those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children" in his remarks Monday, it was hard not to think about the places, including Yemen, where U.S. forces or their allies are doing the same thing. As Greenwald notes, we don't even know if the December airstrikes were encouraged, sanctioned or carried out by U.S. forces, and the Yemeni government is so out of control it can't accurately count the number of casualties. Now that Sen. Joe Lieberman is calling Yemen "tomorrow's war," American policy there deserves more scrutiny.

Though this wasn't an occasion for the grand speechmaking the president's known for, his did go past the mere outlining of the administration's response. Obama also emphasized messages that have been a constant of his rhetoric about terrorism.

"As Americans, we will never give in to fear or division," Obama said. "We will be guided by our hopes, our unity, and our deeply held values."

Finally, Obama addressed recent events in Iran, saying, "The United States joins with the international community in strongly condemning the violent and unjust suppression of innocent Iranian citizens, which has apparently resulted in detentions, injuries, and even death."

More of the president's comments:

I wanted to take just a few minutes to update the American people on the attempted terrorist attack that occurred on Christmas Day and the steps we're taking to ensure the safety and security of the country ....

Here's what we know so far: On Christmas Day, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was en route from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit. As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire.

Thanks to the quick and heroic actions of passengers and crew, the suspect was immediately subdued, the fire was put out, and the plane landed safely. The suspect is now in custody and has been charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft.

A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism, and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable.

Now, this was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland. Had the suspect succeeded in bringing down that plane, it could have killed nearly 300 passengers and crew, innocent civilians preparing to celebrate the holidays with their families and friends.

The American people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your family safe and secure during this busy holiday season.

Since I was first notified of this incident, I've ordered the following actions to be taken to protect the American people and to secure air travel.

First, I directed that we take immediate steps to ensure the safety of the traveling public. We made sure that all flights still in the air were secure and could land safely. We immediately enhanced screening and security procedures for all flights, domestic and international. We added federal air marshals to flights entering and leaving the United States. And we're working closely in this country, federal, state and local law enforcement, with our international partners.

Second, I've ordered two important reviews, because it's absolutely critical that we learn from this incident and take the necessary measures to prevent future acts of terrorism.

The first review involves our watch list system, which our government has had in place for many years to identify known and suspected terrorists so that we can prevent their entry into the United States. Apparently the suspect in the Christmas incident was in this system, but not on a watch list, such as the so-called no-fly list. So I have ordered a thorough review, not only of how information related to the subject was handled, but of the overall watch list system and how it can be strengthened.

The second review will examine all screening policies, technologies and procedures related to air travel. We need to determine just how the suspect was able to bring dangerous explosives aboard an aircraft and what additional steps we can take to thwart future attacks.

Third, I've directed my national security team to keep up the pressure on those who would attack our country. We do not yet have all the answers about this latest attempt, but those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will more -- do more than simply strengthen our defenses. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland.

Finally, the American people should remain vigilant, but also be confident. Those plotting against us seek not only to undermine our security, but also the open society and the values that we cherish as Americans. This incident, like several that have preceded it, demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist.

As a nation, we will do everything in our power to protect our country. As Americans, we will never give in to fear or division. We will be guided by our hopes, our unity, and our deeply held values. That's who we are as Americans; that's what our brave men and women in uniform are standing up for as they spend the holidays in harm's way. And we will continue to do everything that we can to keep America safe in the new year and beyond.