Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Blamecaster strikes again!

Ron Fourier: "How Obama Became the Superhero of Excuses"
The launch of the Affordable Care Act and the worsening of conditions at the Veterans Affairs Department are emblematic of Obama's inattention to the hard work of governing. He is slow to fire poor-serving Cabinet members and quick to dismiss controversies as "phony scandals." To the Obama administration, transparency is a mere talking point. The great irony of his progressive presidency: Democrats privately admit that Obama has done as much to undermine the public's faith in government as his GOP predecessor. The Green Lantern Theory is an excuse for failure.
The VA has been a near-intractable problem for a series of Presidents and I'm not saying that Obama is responsible, although he sure made it an "urgent priority" when he could score points as a candidate.  What I object to is that this guy only finds his sense of urgency when his political capital is at risk and, even then, he acts like he cannot believe he has to explain himself:
Over the weekend, the president’s chief of staff assured the public that Obama was “madder than hell” about what happened at the Department of Veterans Affairs, but in person Obama didn’t seem very angry. Like VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, Obama wasn’t entirely convinced something bad had happened.
How could anything bad happen in this Administration?  Must be some kind of crazy Republican meme they're repeating on this news-transferring thing called television.

It seems like a freshman Senator who has never held a real job in his life is floundering.  Commentary: "The New Obama Narrative: Epic Incompetence"
The White House response to everything from the VA and IRS scandals to the seizure of AP phone records by the Department of Justice is that it learned about them from press reports. More and more Mr. Obama speaks as if he’s a passive actor, a bystander in his own administration, an MSNBC commentator speaking about events he has no real control over. We saw that earlier today, when the president, in trying to address the public’s growing outrage at what’s happening at the VA, insisted he “will not stand for it” and “will not tolerate” what he has stood for and tolerated for almost six years. His anger at what’s happening to our veterans seems to have coincided with the political damage it is now causing him.
That's the only tragedy Obama understands.

Extra - Now that outrage has been expressed, it's back to business:
3:25 pm || Tours the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Cooperstown, New York
Plus fundraisers.

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