By Robert Morrison

The distinguished scholar and author Fouad Ajami has graced the pages of The Wall Street Journal recently with a most important column titled, "Barack Obama the Pessimist." Mr. Ajami notes that President Obama effectively denied American Exceptionalism from the earliest days of his administration. He told reporters in Strasbourg in April 2009 that "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." It was an interesting formulation, Mr. Ajami notes, pointing to President Obama's "break with the history of America's faith in liberty in distant lands." Ajami shows how President Obama abandoned the Iranian pro-democracy forces when they rose up against the Mullahs who rule the world's leading sponsor of terrorism.

Fouad Ajami contrasted Obama's pessimism with Ronald Reagan's essentially optimistic nature. "His faith in America [was] boundless ... [and in Eastern Europe] the captive nations were never in doubt; American power was on the side of liberty."

We can find the roots of Obama's pessimism even earlier in his administration than the Strasbourg Denial. We can look to the third day of his tenure, Jan. 23, 2009. That day, he issued a lethal Executive Order rescinding the Reagan-era Mexico City Policy. As ABC News' Jake Tapper noted then, Obama's order was intended to "elate pro-abortion groups." It certainly did. The prospect of sluicing billions of U.S. tax dollars to abortion traffickers like International Planned Parenthood Federation surely sent a thrill down the legs of these advocates.

What must the people in the Third World have thought of this action? In Africa, as Kenya's Dr. Margaret Ogola has eloquently stated, too many villages lack clean water with which to wash down abortifacients and pills like RU-486 that kill the child in the womb. Many of these native peoples are not as sophisticated as their pro-choice American "helpers" are. They still welcome children. They still think of human life as a blessing.

So did Ronald Reagan. His Mexico City Doctrine was more than simply a cutoff of funds to those who push or do abortions around the world. The Reagan Mexico City Doctrine spoke to the dreams of millions that children should be "welcomed in life and protected in law." Reagan viewed human creativity and energy as the fount of development, liberty and hope. That's what gave him his essentially optimistic world view.

Liberal journalists had a hard time figuring out Reagan. They agreed with Clark Clifford's memorable put-down. The Democratic Party's Wise Man, Clifford met Reagan in the White House and ran back to the Georgetown cocktail party circuit, labeling him "an amiable dunce." When a journalist asked Reagan why so many Americans loved him, he answered succinctly: "They know I love them."

When Reagan sought to protect those who live in what John F. Kennedy memorably called "the huts and villages of half the world," they, too, sensed his love and his optimism. In his Farewell Address to the American people, Reagan pointed to an incident in the South China Sea.

There, a crowded, leaking boat filled with Vietnamese refugees was rescued by sailors from the USS Midway. One of the boat people called out to the young sailors in the launch as it approached their vessel: "Hey, American sailor. Hey, Freedom Man."

In standing with those captive peoples across the world who yearned to breathe free, in proclaiming his Mexico City Doctrine that told them they and their children were valued by America, Ronald Reagan was an optimist. He was that Freedom Man.

Barack Obama braved scorching liberal critics when he called Reagan's presidency "transformational." He said Reagan had changed America in ways that Bill Clinton's two terms did not.

But when he won the White House, when he had the power to transform, Barack Obama tragically revoked Reagan's Mexico City Policy. President Obama, on his third day in office, embraced and imbursed the global Culture of Death. He followed in Bill Clinton's footsteps.

We may call this portentous move President Obama's own Gran Rifuto — his great refusal to say yes to life, to say yes to new hope.

No wonder America is going broke. And no wonder the hopes for change Barack Obama so admirably evoked are broken. CV

Robert Morrison is senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council