DO NOT SPEAK ILL OF THE LIGHTBRINGER.

President Spock’s behavior is illogical.

Once more, he has willfully and inexplicably resisted fulfilling a signal part of his job: being a prism in moments of fear and pride, reflecting what Americans feel so they know he gets it.

“This president needs to tell BP, ’I’m your daddy,’ “ scolded James Carville, a New Orleans resident, as he called Barack Obama’s response to Louisiana’s new watery heartbreak “lackadaisical.”

Of course, our gal Mo protects her continued employment by contorting her logic and working some good old fashioned “Blame Bush!” into the piece.

Oblivious to warnings about Osama hitting the U.S. and Katrina hitting New Orleans, W. often seemed more absorbed in workouts than work. Obama, by contrast, does his homework; he conveys a rare and impressive grasp of difficult subjects when he at last deigns to talk to the news media and reassure those whose lives are overturned by disaster.

Get it? “Obama isn’t very good at this job but he’s still really, really smart! I swear!”

Since we’re talking about GWB now, Dowd fails to mention that he was utterly brilliant at “fulfilling a signal part of his job: being a prism in moments of fear and pride, reflecting what Americans feel so they know he gets it.” His performance after 9/11 gave him more cred in that department than Obama can ever dream of.

The Bush Bashing template may not be enough to offset Ms. Dowd’s analysis of how the Smartest Guy In The Room is handling Oil Spill Katrina.

For five weeks, it looked as though Obama considered the gushing that became the worst oil spill in U.S. history a distraction, like a fire alarm going off in the middle of a law seminar he was teaching. He’ll deal with it, but he’s annoyed because it’s not on his syllabus.

Even if Obama doesn’t watch “Treme” on HBO, it’s strange that he would not have a more spontaneous emotional response to another horrendous hit for Louisiana, with residents and lawmakers crying on the news and dead pelicans washing up on shore. But then, he didn’t make his first-ever visit to New Orleans until nearly a year after Katrina hit. “I never had occasion to be here,” he told The Times’s Jeff Zeleny, then at The Chicago Tribune.

Just as President Clinton once protested to reporters that he was still “relevant,” President Obama had to protest to reporters last week that he has feelings.

He seemed to tune out a bit after the exhausting battle over health care, with the air of someone who says to himself: “Oh, man, that was a heavy lift. I’m taking a break.”

He’s spending the holiday weekend in Chicago when he should be commemorating Memorial Day here with the families of troops killed in battle and with veterans at Arlington Cemetery.

This Times Opinion piece would qualify as the closest thing to lucidity that page has seen in decades had Dowd not thrown in the terminally weak and unimaginative Bush stuff.

Yes, the Kool-Aid is strong but its effects seem to be wearing off a bit. The egocentric world view that drives President Obama will eventually make itself known to his fawning devotees. And yes, they’ll temper it with “Blame Bush!” as long as they can.

But that excuse has a shelf-life too.