The United Nations says it's not irrelevent any more.:

"We know the media prefers to focus on 'hard threats' - such as acts of terrorism or dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction," (Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor) told the Committee, which makes recommendations to the General Assembly on the policy and activities of the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). "The 'soft threats,' such as extreme poverty and hunger, endemic or infectious disease, or environmental degradation that afflict millions of people, rarely made the headlines."

Tharoor didn't say which "hard threats" on which the media chose to focus - whether they have focused on the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia; or 800,000 slaughtered in Rwanda; or the threats created out of the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program; or starvation and lawlessless in Somalia. But really, he said, the U.N. isn't irrelevent.

He added, "...(W)e cannot afford merely to echo the media's priorities."

MORE: The Rasmussen Report just released a finding that "Just 38% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the United Nations these days. Forty-four percent (44%) have an unfavorable view."

As more and more Democrats contemplate the centerpiece of Sen. John Kerry's national security and foreign policy strategy, the phrase "buyer's remorse" may be entering into more and more discussions headed into the Democratic National Convention in July.

MORE: Correction - the buyer's remorse has already begun. (Via James Taranto.)