One of the things Obama promised he would do is “restore” our standing in the world. Unlike that cowboy George Bush, he was going to use smart diplomacy, and all of our allies would love us again.

The reality has been somewhat different.

Since taking office, he’s offended our allies time and time again.

The best examples have been in how he has treated our closest ally, Britain. During Gordon Brown’s first visit, he behaved abysmally. He cancelled their press conference and gave the Brown children toys from the White House gift shop. Gordon Brown gave President Obama extremely thoughtful, priceless gifts. Obama gave Brown 25 DVDs. In the wrong format. He snubbed Queen Elizabeth and gave her an iPod loaded with videos of his speeches.

These aren’t the only examples, but they’ve been the most noticeably egregious ones. Until now, anyways.

The world has been mourning the losses of Polish president Lech Kaczynski, the First Lady, Maria, and dozens of other government and military leaders. They died last week in a horribly tragic plane crash. Poland has been one of our strongest allies and friends, and Kaczynski was in particular. Polish troops fought with us in Iraq and are fighting with us now in Afghanistan. They’ve stood against totalitarianism and depended on us to help them stand against it.

Obama couldn’t blow off the funeral without making it look like the major insult that it would have been. Fortunately for him, the volcanic eruption in Iceland gave him a perfect excuse. He cancelled… and he spent that extra time yesterday playing golf instead of mourning with our friends in Poland.

A massive volcanic plume covering most of Europe forced President Obama to cancel a Sunday trip to Poland to attend the funeral of the nation’s president. But the last-minute change left an opening in his schedule, so the president headed to the links for a round of golf instead.

On a cool but sun-drenched Sunday, the president and three golfing companions went to Andrews Air Force Base to play 18 holes. It is the 32nd time Mr. Obama has played golf since taking office Jan. 20, 2009, according to CBS Radio’s Mark Knoller.

After canceling the Poland trip on Saturday, the White House announced that Mr. Obama had no public schedule for Sunday. He was to have arrived in Krakow in the morning, attend the 2 p.m. funeral and leave for home by 5 p.m., arriving back at the White House after midnight.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, along with dozens of top Polish government officials were killed April 10 when their airplane went down in heavy fog after clipping a tree on approach to Smolensk, Russia.

… Mr. Obama has played golf far more often than former President George W. Bush. In his eight years in office, Mr. Bush played just 24 times. His last time as president was Oct. 13, 2003.

He said in 2008 that he gave up golf “in solidarity” with the families of soldiers who were dying in Iraq.

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” Mr. Bush said in a White House interview Saturday with the Politico. “I feel I owe it to the families to be as — to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

He stopped playing after he received word of a deadly attack in Iraq while playing golf during a stay at the family ranch near Crawford, Texas.

“They pulled me off the golf course, and I said it’s just not worth it anymore to do,” Mr. Bush said in the interview.

Since Mr. Obama took office, 397 soldiers have died in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Another 151 have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Makes sense, I guess. If the deaths of our own troops don’t bother him enough to keep him from playing, then why would the deaths of some foreign politicians? In Obama’s short time in office, he’s already played eight times more golf than Bush did during his entire presidency. It’s embarassing!

Now, I personally think that if Obama really wanted to be there, he would’ve been in Poland for that funeral. Several foreign leaders didn’t attend either, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev somehow was able to fly by plane from Moscow to get there. And if he really couldn’t make it, he could have made some kind of gesture stateside to show his solidarity… like, oh, I don’t know, visiting the Polish embassy for an hour or so.

He has yet to do that, by the way.

Mr. Obama has not gone to the Polish Embassy in Washington since the accident, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. both have. There, they signed a condolence book.

Visiting the embassy and signing the condolence book would’ve sent a much better message to the Polish people. Something like, even though I can’t be there personally, you are still in my thoughts. I am thinking of you. I am mourning with you.

But no, this is master of diplomacy Barack Obama. He blew off the funeral and went and played golf instead.

And lest you think that the Poles didn’t notice the slap in the face, they did.

Mr Obama’s Sunday golf game prompted anger in Poland, where the Warsaw Business Post carried a headline reading: “Obama goes golfing instead of attending Kaczynskis’ funeral”.

Cross-posted at The Green Room.