Smooth as silk, Barack Obama sounded the alarm this morning at the U.N. about global warming and said the U.S. was full-speed-ahead on the problem, and the press dutifully reported it as such.

Obama's delivery paid off: The Wall Street Journal headlined it "U.S. Determined to Act on Climate, Despite 'Doubts and Difficulties' " and quoted Obama as saying, "We are determined to act."

But all the talk in the U.N. hallways is how the U.S. is dragging its feet, in part because Obama and Congress are so consumed by the health-care fracas.

If it takes pulling the plug on Glenn Beck or having a veterinarian put him to sleep so people can figure out a health-care compromise, fine. (Or if you yourself want to be put to sleep reading a long bio of Glenn Beck, go to Salon and have at it.)

Meanwhile, the Europeans are pissed because they are the ones determined to act on global warming. In the Financial Times's "US-EU rift clouds climate summit," an EU official says:

The best jab came from John Bruton, the EU's ambassador to the U.S.:

Don't threaten us, buddy. We'll melt down your global economy again.