Compare & Contrast

A Tripoli resident, February 21, 2011:

Libyan warplanes were bombing indiscriminately across Tripoli on Monday, a resident of the Libyan capital told al Jazeera television in a live broadcast.

"What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said.

Daniel Foster on the Corner, February 21, 2011:

With reports that the Gaddafi regime -- or what’s left of it -- has effected the indiscriminate massacre of Libyan civilians, up to and including air strikes in Tripoli and the planned carpet-bombing of Benghazi, the suggestion that President Obama establish a "no-fly zone" above Libya has begun popping up on social media.

I don’t say this lightly, but I think POTUS must so act. . . Gaddafi’s bombers must be grounded.

President Obama, March 3, 2011:

Going forward, we will continue to send a clear message: the violence must stop; Muammar Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave; those who perpetrate violence against the Libyan people will be held accountable; and the aspirations of the Libyan people for freedom, democracy and dignity must be met.

Ann Althouse, March 3, 2011:

Note the implicit statement that the dictator once had legitimacy. Why would Obama think that?

Philip Terzian in the Weekly Standard, March 3, 2011:

The fact that the president has waited so long to make any public gesture in this direction, and the forum in which he addressed Qaddafi--a joint press conference with the president of Mexico--surely detracts from any power his words might have carried. So, too, does his reasoning: Qaddafi, says Obama, "has lost the legitimacy to lead"--a phrase which combines turgid language with the implication that Qaddafi, who staged a coup d’état and has exercised dictatorial power since 1969, was ever Libya's "legitimate" leader. Informing Qaddafi that he has lost the "legitimacy to lead" lacks the unambiguous impact of Cromwell's famous rebuke to the Long Parliament--"Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" . . .

Observers of the Obama administration's tentative behavior--leasing a private ferry to transport American nationals from Tripoli, emphasizing the necessity of "coordinated" diplomatic gestures against Qaddafi, describing in detail the military obstacles to action--have wondered if the White House might be wary of the exercise of American power. This is no longer a rhetorical question: The Obama administration is not only reluctant to advance (or, for that matter, defend) the national interest in Libya, but seems to regard the national interest as suspect in itself.

Reuters report, March 3, 2011:

Opposition activists called for a no-fly zone, echoing a demand by Libya’s deputy U.N. envoy, who now opposes Gaddafi.

"Bring Bush! Make a no fly zone, bomb the planes," shouted soldier-turned-rebel Nasr Ali, referring to a no-fly zone imposed on Iraq in 1991 by then U.S. President George Bush. (Also quoted here, here.)

Fire Andrea Mitchell blog, March 3, 2011:

Reuters scrubs story of Libyan rebel Nasr Ali crying for help from George H.W. Bush

Reuters pulls a quote from a story of Libyan rebel Nasr Ali crying for Bush, wow, I wonder why.

Conclusion: Add Reuters to Walter Russell Mead's list of top "Gaddafi Toads". Maybe Obama as well.

(via reader Doug J., reader Warren, Ed Morrissey, Instapundit)