Obama turns authoritarian, rather than work with Congress -- By David Keene, The Washington Times

Not long ago, reporters asked White House spokesman Jay Carney to react to Iran's new "moderate" president Hassan Rouhani's tweet that as a result of his negotiations with the United States, "world powers surrendered to Iran's national will."

Mr. Carney, speaking for the Obama administration, had an answer, "It doesn't matter what they say. It matters what they do."

In the context of world affairs, U.S. politicians have often made the mistake of assuming our adversaries don't really mean what they say. We like to think that, in their hearts, they share our values and concerns.

In the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler talked about Jews and what should be done with them, Western leaders discounted his words as empty rhetoric.

When the Soviet Union's Nikita Khrushchev thundered in the 1960s, "We will bury you," U.S. politicians concluded he was posturing for domestic reasons and didn't mean it.

Today, when extremist Middle Eastern leaders suggest that Israel should be destroyed, we comfort ourselves in the belief that they don't really mean it.

History, contrary to Mr. Carney's rhetoric, tells us that words do matter, and that we would be wise to listen to what our adversaries say because they may, in fact, act on what they say.

Of course, Mr. Carney's rejoinder tells us more about the administration for which he speaks than about history and reality, but even here there is a truly serious disconnect.

Mr. Carney's boss too often seems to think that his listeners should pay attention not to what he does, but to what he says, and that it is unfair of his critics to point out that his actions and words are often in conflict.

President Obama has stood behind a lot of teleprompters as candidate and president to deliver speeches and lectures that have meant very little. His words have contained promises he knew he couldn't or had no intention of keeping and were seemingly forgotten as soon as they scrolled off the screen.

When his actions don't jibe with his words, he and his defenders go back to revise the record and at times argue, as Obama defender Rep. Charles B. Rangel did at one point, that politicians shouldn't be held accountable for what they say when they are campaigning.

Still, words matter even when those uttering them do so to mislead. The words provide insights as to the true feelings of the speaker. Thus, it was with Mr. Obama's State of the Union speech last night.

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