Commenting on the interview, Krauthammer noted that he was well up on the Bush doctrine because he coined the phrase in the Weekly Standard in 2001. It did not, as Gibson suggested, mean a single position but rather described four separate foreign policy attitudes of which the ambition to bring liberty to the oppressed, not preemption, was the most salient.

Krauthammer's perspicacity is galling to his detractors - how often events have proved him correct - but what really sends them round the bend is his moral clarity. For example, when Israel, having suffered hundreds of rocket attacks from Hamas, entered Gaza to put a stop to the carnage, the usual suspects demonstrated against Israel. Krauthammer calmly pointed out that in this conflict "one combatant is committed to causing the most civilian pain and suffering on both sides. The other combatant is committed to saving as many lives as possible".

That many apparently rational people hesitate to say which was which is one reason that Charles Krauthammer is sadly underrated. If President Obama has any sense, he will listen to the incorruptible, if critical, voice of Krauthammer rather than to the flatterers who surround him.