PEGGY NOONAN: Paris is different, but the president can’t seem to change:

Finally, continued travels through the country show me that people continue to miss Ronald Reagan’s strength and certitude. In interviews and question-and-answer sessions, people often refer to Reagan’s “optimism.” That was his power, they say—he was optimistic.

No, I say, that wasn’t his power and isn’t what you miss. Reagan’s power was that he was confident. He was confident that whatever the problem—the economy, the Soviets, the million others—he could meet it, the American people could meet it, and our system could meet it. The people saw his confidence, and it allowed them to feel optimistic. And get the job done.

What people hunger for now from their leaders is an air of shown and felt confidence: I can do this. We can do it.

Who will provide that? Where will it come from? Isn’t it part of what we need in the next president?

I’m not sure what Noonan’s chief objection is, since on the eve of the 2008 election she wrote that Mr. Obama “He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief.”

What we’re seeing in Iraq, Syria, Paris, Mali and elsewhere is the end result of that change in “the direction and tone of American foreign policy,” which Noonan believed needed changing. (And it’s quite a change, by the way.)

By the way, there’s another president who provided optimism and confidence. As Glenn tweets today in response to Slate, “Too bad you guys un-personed him starting in 2005. Miss him yet?”