The National Security President
In this morning’s Washington Post, Marc A. Thiessen writes that the president has skipped more than half of his daily national security briefings to date;
The Government Accountability Institute, a new conservative investigative research organization, examined President Obama’s schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) — the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent — falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.
Theissen continues that National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, told him that it wasn’t necessary for the President to attend every briefing because it’s “not particularly interesting or useful.” I could see a tenth of the meetings not being useful, but nearly 60% of them? The why are they even having the security briefings?
But, of course, Senator Obama missed most of the votes in the Senate during his term, so why should we expect him to be more concerned about national security? We got the President we voted for.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
Perhaps it cuts into greens time too much?
If you don’t go to the meetings, you can easily and truthfully claim “Hey, nobody told me”.
President Short-Attention Span.
My problem is that it shows zero mother effing respect for the highest office in the land, the people he serves, and the US Constitution. I am tired of the bullshit he spews to insult our intelligence. The bastard gave Venezuela a billion, wasted taxpayer money on green stupidity and is now promising more of the same and saying he can create jobs.
Seriously, WTF? Take off the rose-colored glasses you left-minded and pigment challenged thinkers! Remember, pigment doesn’t make people smart and it was certainly the wrong reason to use to vote for a lying,no-good thug from Shitcago!
I don’t deserve what I get because “you people” are too stupid to get it after four fucking years…
How’s that for getting my Wheatties pissed in?
@4: I love it when you get your Wheaties pissed in. I Like it when you talk rough 🙂
If he sincerely believes “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors…” – and there’s every indication that the megalomaniac is the biggest consumer of his own Kool-Aid – why bother wasting time listening to people talk about stuff that you know better than them?
Read the referenced WP article http://tinyurl.com/9ed6dx2 the President is informed, and keeps himself informed and acts accordingly. On the other hand, Bush was repeatedly informed of Al-Qaeda intentions prior to 9/11, and did nothing. As for the golf course criticism, President Bush made 77 trips to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 490 days. How does that compare to 100 rounds of golf?
I don’t know how many “trips to the ranch” were working trips, but I remember reading somewhere a few years back that they pretty much all were. Whether that is actually the case or not, I cannot say, but comparing that with a golf game? Really?
“The meetings aren’t particularly interesting….”
Not interesting.Is that the basis for determining which meetings to attend? And how in the world does he know in advance which ones will be interesting? I can hear it now, “Mr. President, today’s meeting features an overview of American losses at the hands of Afghan police and security forces.” [President: Silence…rolls eyes..taps fingers on table] “Yes, well, Mr. President, I’ll let them know that you won’t be there today.”
@7. “Read the referenced WP article….” No.
I don’t trust much of what Thiessen writes without corroboration…..but assuming what he writes is true, I’m wondering if the calendar PDBs he is referencing are just those scheduled for when POTUS is at the White House?
@3: Would that be President Sap?
Typical of that “laser-like focus” we keep hearing about from this administration.
And with the same shitty results we’ve come to expect.
My guess would be the President doesn’t understand that they are talking about, so he doesn’t want to look too dumb, so he doesn’t show up. Either that, or he doesn’t give a f–k.
Why does it have to be either/or? Can’t it be both? In this case, isn’t it more likely than not both?
Keeping his track record I see.
#7 – Did you even read the article yourself?
If President Bush rarely missed the meeting, that means that every one of his ranch visit were working visits. The article also says this:
“While the Bush records are not yet available electronically for analysis, officials tell me the former president held his intelligence meeting six days a week, no exceptions — usually with the vice president, the White House chief of staff, the national security adviser, the director of National Intelligence, or their deputies, and CIA briefers in attendance. Once a week, he held an expanded Homeland Security briefing that included the Homeland Security adviser, the FBI director and other homeland security officials. Bush also did more than 100 hour-long “deep dives” in which he invited intelligence analysts into the Oval Office to get their unvarnished and sometimes differing views. Such meetings deepened the president’s understanding of the issues and helped analysts better understand the problems with which he was wrestling.”
“6 days a week, no exceptions”.
So between this and 7 months of no meetings with the jobs council, what exactly does he do all day in between golf games? Oh yeah, fundraise and hang out with Hollywood types.
I wasn’t a big fan of George W, too big government for me, but at least he took the job seriously and truly loves this country and support the troops. You can’t say any of that about the Liar in Chief.
@7 — The failure of 9/11/01 was in the lack of communication between the FBI and the CIA, not in Bush. If those two agencies had paid attention to the red flags they both got, and the civilian reports to the FAA, things might have been different. Don’t blame someone else for the failure of two independent, non-partison government agencies. And try doing your homework once in a while. This was all dissected and discussed in the media long ago. I’m no more crazy about GWBush than Common Sense is, but the failure was not on his part.
Defend, I think you are far too kind in your rhetoric. You could pump it up a bit.
What I really dislike is the sloppiness in this administration. Per a news report thisd afternoon, all the security leaks from this administration point to three people working FOR Bo in the Oval Office. This, and that little tete-a-tete with Vlad Putin on video “I’ll have more flexibility after the election” have me wondering just what that dork’s agenda really is. He’s spent less time on the actual job than anyone else I’ve ever seen, like someone who couldn’t care less. If he were in the private sector, he’d be in the unemployment lines by now.
Stupid boring meetings cut into his hobbies – NCAA brackets, marketing his beer recipe, card games, pick-up basketball, watching ESPN half the day, sleeping in, hanging with the rich and famous etc. I didn’t know it, but apparently BO would practice for HOURS each day on improving his bowling skills or card playing, or memorizing a few Al Green lyrics. When does he have time to perform Presidential duties?
Here is a recent New York Times article that unintenionally paints a very unflattering portrait of a man more interested in trivial pursuits than governing the most powerful country in the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/us/politics/obama-plays-to-win-in-politics-and-everything-else.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3&hp&adxnnlx=1346688036-MzgJyIUa3P4Rdy/Cgzx/ew
@#7
I don’t think you have any concept of how important obambi’s golf game is to him.
You may also not have the construct of how important intelligence briefings are to the emptychair-in-chief.
But, I repeat myself.
Y’all leave #7 alone! Don’t you understand that Obama killed bin Laden!??
With his bare hands.
Blindfolded.
In the dark.
You probably already know this: the DoJ Inspector General is readying a report on the Fast and Furious/AG Holder, etc., in regard to all the — well, idiocy — that took place 2 years ago. AG Holder wants things redacted that don’t need to be redacted. AND the weapons that were part of F&F have been found in Colombia, and are suspected to also be in Guatemala and Nicaragua.
From the Law Examiner, 09/08/2012:
In a blistering statement in September 2011, Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibanez accused President Barack Obama of actually knowing about the Fast and Furious operation and being deceptive over the facts behind the weapons being used to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens.
Ibanez told Mexican reporters that she was demanding a full and honest explanation from the United States government especially since evidence is being gathered that reveals the Obama administration was more involved in Operation Fast and Furious than top officials admitted in their sworn statements.
(I guess she doesn’t like Bo, either.)
@18= Actually, the failure was Bush. The New York Times reveals that Bush’s incompetance was even greater than I thought. They were told as early as May 2001 of impending Al Queda attacks and they did NOTHING. Thousands of Americans died needlessly because of his incompentance and Romney wants to put the same folks in charge again:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html
Oh, looky here, the instupid can link to an OPINION column by the hilariously leftist NY Times! How cute!
And did you read any of the 9/11 Commission report? I still have my copy at home, and despite people like Jamie Gorelick almost pathetically trying to cover her ass for the shit she pulled in the Clinton years, all the folks there said there was plenty of shit to pack in the sandwich for everyone to take a big old bite out of.
Seems to me that Clinton also knew of Al Qaeda and their little shit-stirring activities as early as March of 1993 and did fuck all. Didn’t do shit after Mogadishu, didn’t do shit after Khobar Towers, didn’t do shit after the African embassy bombings, didn’t do shit after the USS Cole…
Shall I go on?
Uh the article from Theisen is also an oppinion column. And Theissen, far from being an unbiased observer is a Republican partisan and a former speech writer for George W. Bush. Kurt Eichenwald on the other hand is an investigative reporter who has gone after Democrats as well as Republicans. If there’s any political bias in his reporting or his background I haven’t seen it. Whereas it is all over Theisen’s writing.
Also, the “Leftist” New york times doggedly pursued Clinton on the alleged Whitewater “Scandals” long after it was obvious that there was no there, there. And let’s not forget how they dutifully exagerated every so-called Gore”lie” and then acted as transcriptionist for George W. Bush’s WMD lies. So no they’re hardly leftist.
And you have the history completely backwards. It was Clinton that was doing everything he could to get Bin Laden and it was the Republicans that were accusing him or wagging the dog.
I know you LOVE to deflect the blame, but it IS your party that is responsible for 911, two needless wars and a global economic melt-down. Your refusal to take responsibility is understandable, but pathetic.
I look at it this way–any newspaper that on 9/11/01 has an article about Bill Ayers with a picture of him stepping on the American flag is a piece of shit rag with no ethics or integrity.
Take from that what you will, and begone.
Clinton did fuck-all to get OBL. Even when OBL was offered to Clinton on a fucking silver platter no fewer than three times, Clinton refused, claiming some bullshit about “no legal authority.” What fucking horseshit.
I’ve already given you multiple links from multiple fact checking orginizations debunking the “silver platter” lie. Bottom line is that there’s one president that came extremely close to getting Bin Laden and that is Bill Clinton, the President that got him was Barack Obama. The President that let him committ his attacks on his watch despite mutliple warning was George W. Bush. He’s also the President that let him go.
That and the fact that President Obama has killed three times as many Al Queda as Bush has puts the lie to the meme that it is Republicans that are strong on National Security. Under Republicans Al Queda is hard to find and not worth moving heaven and eart to defeat, under Democrats they’re dead.
Oh horseshit. How about the FUCKING RECORDING OF HIM SAYING IT, you living-in-denial benumbed little twit?
And Barack Obama “got him”? Seriously? What fucking color is the sky on your planet?
BTW–killing Al Q is nice, but guess what? Had those people been CAPTURED and INTERROGATED, maybe we’d have gotten something besides a bunch of dead bodies. You know, like the knowledge about Al Q, etc., gained from CAPTURING and INTERROGATING (using methods you pissed and moaned about) guys like Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed, who your beloved Teleprompter Jebus wants to put on trial in New York Fuckin City!!!
And didja think for maybe a second or so that said knowledge in fact led to where OBL was hiding out, and had we known that before 1/20/09, Bush wouldn’t have wasted three opportunities to get him because Valerie Jarrett was advising against it, and on the fourth go-round only agreed after thinking about it FOR SIXTEEN FUCKING HOURS????
Who’s living in a fantasy land again, insipid? Your name fits you more with each post, m’boy.
“I know you LOVE to deflect the blame”
That is all YOU do here. Every time someone criticizes President Obama you always come back with some version of “well Bush did this”.
Since, according to you, the NY Times is the God’s honest truth are you going to sing from the mountain tops refuting your fellow Liberals favorite talking point, that Bush stole Florida?
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/politics/12VOTE.html
The problem with people who believe Obama has done a bang-up fucking job, while still blaming Bush is that they keep moving the line on what they find to be acceptable behavior in the highest office of the land.
Let me give you some examples:
Nixon was caught rigging and stealing shit. He could have been impeached. But rather than subject the Country to that BS, he resigned.
Billy Jeff had a fucking affair and lied. He was impeached but it wasn’t about the sex like the dumb asses on the left believe…it was about the lying under oath. Should he have stepped down? Yes! But he was protected. The line got moved. They forgot about those things called laws.
Then we have this COWboy, an empty suit, who has covered up many things, including the love child with Ms. Vera Baker, Fast and Furious, The DOJ not prosecuting the law breakers in Philly…need I go on?
The problem is that if you want to consider that you are a moral, thinking and committed to right and wrong as opposed to persecuting others for following the rules so to speakbecause your line keeps moving–Then you have to be willing to take the shit and say it was wrong. If you don’t, then every kind of behavior becomes acceptable and you have no standard to uphold.
So, has Obama really stood for the people? Are you truly better off? Is the Country divided more than before? What will it take for you left-minded people to understand that your vote has cost us all?
Get it, you left mined idiots?
No, Twist – he won’t. He’ll latch on to the fact that under the most liberal possible interpretation of the bogus “dimpled chad” standard Gore might have won. Or he’ll blame it on bad ballot design that led to “confused” voters spoiling their ballots by voting for multiple presidential candidates (though those were approved by Democratic voting officials in the counties in question). He’ll simply ignore the fact that a preponderance of evidence indicates that a full-state recount under the rules county voting officials indicated they would have used for such a recount would have still given the election to Bush.
I wish I had been aware of this blog 4 years ago. At that time in the 109th Congress Obama had been quoted as saying that Veterans were a priority of his. He was on the Veterans Affairs Committee at that time and missed half of the meetings making him the Democrat with 2nd worst attendance at the time. My point 4 years ago was that we had a man with zero executive experience, zero legislative initiative experience (cosigning everyone else’s bills while only introducing four bills that commend someone for their actions isn’t a real legislative initiative in any book), and not having served one full term in the senate hardly qualifies you for the highest office in the land.
Four years later it should come as no surprise that the nation is still struggling, it’s what happens when you elect a leader who isn’t sure how to lead and has never actually led anything in his life. I still say Romney and Obama hardly represent the best our nation has to offer, but Obama is certainly the wrong man for the job over the next four years.
Priorities, folks – it’s just priorities coming to the forefront. Based on the amount of time spent, this POTUS also appears to find golf more important than the economy, too:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/19/REPORT-Obama-Spends-Nearly-As-Much-Time-On-The-Economy-As-Dog-Owners-Spend-Walking-Their-Dogs
Inauguration thru mid-July:
Golf: approx 600hrs (100 rounds)
Meetings on the economy: 412 hours
Looks like about 1.5 hours golfing for each hour spent in meetings on the economy to me.
Gotta keep those priorities straight!
Insipid, you incredile salope. Regarding responsibility for the failures that allowed the hijackers to carry out their plans on 9/11/2001, here is an article in the New York Times from 2003, following the publication of the congressional investigation: ‘9/11 Congressional Report Faults F.B.I.-C.I.A. Lapses By DAVID JOHNSTON Published: July 24, 2003 The Sept. 11 attacks were preventable, but the plot went undetected because of communications lapses between the F.B.I. and C.I.A., which failed to share intelligence related to two hijackers, a Congressional report to be released on Thursday says. The report, by a joint committee of the House and Senate intelligence panels, found that for nearly two years before the attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency knew about the terror connections between the two men, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi, who in 2000 moved to San Diego, frequenting Muslim circles that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had infiltrated. Some people who have seen the report said its central finding was that if the intelligence agency had shared its information and that if the F.B.I. had used its informants more aggressively, the presence of Mr. Midhar and Mr. Alhazmi in San Diego offered ”the best chance to unravel the Sept. 11 plot.” The report was described as a scathing critique of the two agencies in the months before the attacks, saying they failed to counter the threat from Al Qaeda even though they had known for years that its leader, Osama bin Laden, was determined to attack the United States. Parts of the report have been disclosed by various news organizations in the past week.’ No matter how much you want to twist things to suit yourself, the Congressional report has the facts and YOU DON’T. Blaming George Bush for the faults of two independent government agencies shows both your ignorance. Denying that the previous president, Bill Clinton, had this information and did not act on it for TWO YEARS BEFORE BUSH WAS IN OFFICE shows more ignorance on your part, cafard. This article comes from the New York Times, your favorite news rag, ketsu manko. Chingese ud, chingador. You’re wrong about… Read more »