When President Obama blames climate change for stoking terrorism, he’s trying to play us all for saps. He’s doing what Hollywood exploitation movies have done since the 1920s — latching on to a widespread fear, mixing in lurid content and hoping to turn it to his profit.

Quick and dirty movie-making was low and clever. But Obama’s exploitation is only disreputable, not smart. It makes him an even more distant and discredited leader, hopelessly out of touch with the legitimate fears of the public whose mind he wants to change.