Metro

Tehran is about to blow! Where’s Obama?

I try not to overdose on the fear factor, but the shocking intelligence failure in the Christmas airline plot isn’t the only national security night mare facing America. While we were all absorbed with the underwear bomber, the Iranian nuke mess took another big turn for the worse.

President Obama’s end-of-the-year deadline for the mad mullahs to make a deal on uranium enrichment came and went, but not without incident. There were three, none good.

Most troubling, the White House proved it still doesn’t have a Plan B, even though its unBush diplomacy has proven to be a total dud. Get a load of the double-talk from press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Asked at a briefing what the US will do now, Gibbs did a good imitation of comic Professor Irwin Corey, without the laughs. “Well, the next step is ongoing, and that is working with our partners in the P5+1 and throughout the international community in looking at the next steps to hold Iran accountable.”

In plain English: We don’t have a clue.

Unfortunately, the Iranians know what they want — the bomb. The only question is whether we will stop them.

That’s been the question since Obama took office. He promised during the campaign it would never happen, but with each passing day, it appears we are on a glide path to accepting a nuclear-armed Iran.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton added to the impression our policy is surrender. She also was asked what’s next and, though more diplo-speak than doublespeak, served up a long-winded nothing burger.

Here’s a taste: “We remain committed to working with our international partners on addressing the serious concerns we have regarding Iran’s nuclear program . . . We have an engagement track and a pressure track . . .

“We have concerns about their behavior, we have concerns about their intentions, and we are deeply disturbed by the mounting signs of ruthless repression that they are exercising . . . We want to keep the door to dialogue open. But we’re going to continue on our dual-track approach.”

Gibberish aside, the “dual track” is a fiction because sanctions are off the table. A top Chinese diplomat made that clear, saying last week, “This is not the right time or right moment for sanctions,” and more “patience” with Iran is needed.

Not coincidentally, a report surfaced showing Chinese companies routinely evade the three rounds of sanctions the United Nations already slapped on Iran. The Chinese firms sell, among other banned goods, missile technology.

Without tough sanctions and real enforcement, more talk is the only track left. It’s getting us nowhere, but it’s fine with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime because diplomacy gives it international legitimacy and buys more time to develop its nuclear program.

Showing how they have seized control of the talks, the Iranians even had the chutzpah to set a deadline for the US and others to accept their terms for a deal.

There is no way to understate the danger ahead, yet there is no evidence Obama is alarmed enough to change course.

Perhaps the president is too busy connecting the dots on the Christmas security failure. An Iranian bomb would certainly solve his problem. It would make everything else look like child’s play.

Schu wants NYers to foot the bil

Chuck Schumer, phone home. New York needs you.

Our Energizer Bunny senator is using his energies to push issues that don’t help city and state taxpayers. As Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg convincingly argue, the federal health overhaul that Schumer supports will sock New York with at least $1 billion of annual costs — forever.

Another provision, a Medicare tax hike on income, is a double whammy on many New Yorkers.

Equally troubling is Schumer’s obsession with protecting Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand from having a Democratic primary. After helping clear the field of earlier wannabes, he recently warned Bill Thompson he would do everything he could to defeat him if the former comptroller and mayoral candidate ran, including shutting off contributors.

Thompson backed off, but then Harold Ford Jr., another potential challenger, got a similar warning. Schumer is so concerned, he asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to urge Bloomberg not to help Ford.

As penalty for not backing off, Ford, a former Tennessee congressman, suddenly finds himself under attack from liberal groups who say he is too conservative. He says they are distorting his record and that he will not be “bullied.”

If Schumer is orchestrating the attacks, he ought to stop. It is an affront to democracy to work against giving New York voters a choice, especially when Gillibrand was handed her job. If she can’t win it, she doesn’t deserve it.

The buzz from DC is that Schumer signed onto to the Obama agenda because he wants to be majority leader. Ambition is good, as long as he remembers who hired him in the first place.

TRIAL A $200M TERROR ERROR

The payroll of the world champion Yankees is about $200 million. That same sum covers the annual cost of the entire Queens and Brooklyn library systems.

And now it’s the estimated price of holding the 9/11 trial in lower Manhattan.

To say it’s obscene to spend $200 million for a circus doesn’t begin to describe the insanity. At any price, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and fellow fiends don’t deserve the presumption of innocence or other protections of ordinary defendants.

New Yorkers certainly don’t deserve to have a commercial and residential district put into a security lockdown or have the city become even more of a terror target.

Some pols think they’re doing their jobs by making sure Washington picks up the tab. Hogwash. Last time I looked, New Yorkers also pay federal income and corporate taxes, so we’re paying no matter what.

One insider told me a number of city and state officials secretly don’t want the trial here but are afraid to say it publicly because they don’t want to alienate President Obama.

Seems to me their fears are misplaced. They should be more afraid New York will be attacked again. And that voters might finally get sick of their partisan games.

City pension comprehension

It’s pegged as a “fast fact,” but my poor brain has trouble comprehending it — even though I’ve seen it dozens of times. The fact, in large green numbers on the Citizens Budget Commission home page, is “704 percent” and it represents the growth in city pension costs since 2000.

Imagine that. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. Just look at your tax bills.

At Times they’re witty

The Times had a clever Web headline, though I sus pect the Gray Ladies didn’t get the tabloid beauty of their creation. “Bamboozled by Obama?” asked lib bloggers if they believed Obama failed to keep his campaign promises. Polls show many Americans feel betrayed. Now we have a word for it: Bam-boozled.