The Clueless President

Obama "Unaware"  -- willful ignorance is a sign of incompetence --

Press secretary Jay Carney was reluctant to engage Monday on whether the president has knowingly been left uninformed on key issues. Pressed by a reporter who noted that some Republicans have been critical of Obama for claiming advance ignorance, Carney eventually dismissed the question . . . Indeed, the Republican National Committee on Monday called Obama the “bystander president.” “Obama didn’t know,” spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said in an email sent to reporters soon after Carney’s exchange. “Last week, Obama wasn’t told how bad the ObamaCare website glitches were. Today, he didn’t know about the NSA spying on the German chancellor. Will he ever take responsibility for — let alone become aware of — how he’s running his government?”(source Politico). 

"Obama Unaware as U.S. Spied on World Leaders: Officials" - WSJ.com -- that was the headline in the Wall Street Journal (you can read the story at the link above) as the White House began its "spin" to distance Obama from his own NSA and the revelations of its spying on the personal phone calls of Germany's elected Chancellor and the leaders of 34 other nations. Oh well, just add this to the pile of things Obama "didn't know anything about"--Obamacare website mess, IRS malfeasance, GSA partying, Benghazi, Fast and Furious--the list goes on and on (you can google any of the above if any don't ring a bell with you). The point is, any leader as ignorant, as apparently Obama is, of the workings of an enterprise (in this case the Executive Branch of the US government) he or she is responsible for, and supposed to be managing and leading, should be fired for incompetence. He is the Commander in Chief, he is supposed to know, and if he doesn't know he needs to fire everyone who is keeping him uninformed. Willful ignorance is not a strategy for competent management and leadership in any organization.

What a far way we have come from Harry Truman's "the buck stops here." In Obama's White House it's all about "deniability" so Obama "can't be blamed"--poor thing, he didn't know, therefore he is NOT responsible!

The problem is, when you are President of the United States, you are responsible, by definition. It is way past time for the Obama White House to quit the spin and running for re-election and start the hard task of real governance and leadership. Otherwise, please, for the sake of the nation, do as Harry Truman said, if you can't stand the heat, get out of kitchen.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole