Jump to the 8 minute mark on this clip. Listen to Pat Caddell go off on the national security leaks . Keep in mind that Caddell, a Democrat, has no love for the current President. Even with that he asks a very important question: Did Obama call and ask/demand that the New York Times kill the stories?
Obama was defiant on Friday insisting “The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive.” This may well end up being the statement from Friday’s presser that truly haunts Obama.
(Also, please note it’s “my White House.”)
Though it’s possible the leaks came from outside the White House, it’s hardly probable. On the other hand, the accusation that the leaks were designed to make Obama look tough comports with everything we already know about this White House. It’s driven by a narcissist will do anything to win, which includes compromising national security.
Every word of Obama’s angry response contains the whiff of scandals past. I did not have sex with that woman….I am not a crook… The key word is purposefully. It’s the pants on fire give away. I suspect this is precisely what happened. The leaks were from the White House and very much on purpose. Obama used that particular word because he knows it. A simple “We’ll get to the bottom of it.” would have sufficed. When pols are cornered and know it they go for the outright lie.
I’m betting this scandal has legs and the Obamamedia won’t be able to ignore it.
It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up that gets them.
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John, while we all can see that O is desperate for a second term, I continue to wonder Why ?
He does not seem to like the actual work and he does not have the temperament or character suited to the job, so again, Why ?
Conspiracy believers have their Manchurian theory, but there’s a lot of hard road before that idea stands up to the light.
The perks are nice, but he’s a wealthy man, he can Buy a few perks. If he makes up with Oprah, she will loan him her plane. His wife is angry and sullen to the point of tediousness and his girls look grim most of the time. {although as teenagers that is sort of their job} By normal standards though, that is not an ideal life for kids. One imagines that he can make a decent life with speaking fees and ghost written books.. On the surface, it just all seems pointless.
He likes the job, not the work.
Exactly right, Myiq.
He is, as Chris Rock would put it, “rich” but not “wealthy”.
He doesn’t have the money for a couple of 747s, a fleet of armored SUVs, and the odd helicopter to be at his personal beck and call.
He’s not rich enough to afford a brass band to strike up “Hail to the Chief” every time he steps off a plane.
He can’t afford a 300-person retinue to accompany him everywhere.
If he were still Barry from Honolulu, folks wouldn’t stand up and in some cases salute every time he walked into a room.
He *likes* that stuff.
Brilliant comment Propertius (who I’ve always read as ‘proprietous’ until just this moment — my dyslexia is so hung up on manners!)
I think it is about the speaking fees and accolades after being the prez. At this point, he’d be a one-termer whose signature achievement is a mass program that was ruled unconstitutional, while he fights the plethora of books and articles that will be forthcoming when Romney wins (yep, I believe both results will happen). Being a two-termer seems to make one more immune to that controversy, an all is forgiven attitude. Besides, I believe he always has been wanted to known as greater than MLK and Malcolm X in what he’s done for blacks which will be the main goal of a second term — enshrining him in that role.
Sophie – your questions is nicely answered above. I concur. Never under estimate this man’s estimation of himself. AND the manchurian candidate stuff is interesting, and I don’t discount it. Here’s the deal with that stuff though – once he’s placed he needs to play. He must keep those who brung him happy. He hasn’t. It could be that the Powers That Be have the same arc regarding Obama that millions have had. They serve kool-aid behind the curtain too. And my theory for a while has been: He done his job. He protected Pharma – for now – he protected Wall street, while acting like he wasn’t. He stopped the post W, financial crash “revolution”, no one went to jail. And Mrs. Clinton has salvaged the rest in an untenable historical moment. Obama is no longer needed. At some point BHO went off the reservation if only in terms of talking points. His desperation to win another term has been ugly. The Bain attacks did more damage than we know. The presidential “selectors” don’t like that shit. Romney is better for “them” anyway. Obama was needed in a very specific moment. That moment is past.
Re: the manchurian theory: I been sensing dissatisfaction among a certain class for a while. Things leak via the media. And a notch below them – the moneyed Dems – DLC types – are all but openly done with him. If he starts taking on water around F and F or this leaks business it will be quietly known they are rooting for Romney. They may be already. I think Bill Clinton is.
two other things:
Ego: If Obama is shown the door then Clinton is the one full 2 term Dem since FDR. Obama must find that untenable. He’s then another Carter…but without the religious underpinnings to keep serving. Carter without the character. If he loses he’d be more than fine to be sure. That fact is he made history. His place is secure. He’ll make boatloads of money speaking. But i return to ego. He’s running because he can’t NOT run. And there is so much involved that we don’t see. The nation and indeed much of the world revolves around a U.S. President. It would be hard for anyone to give that up, much less someone with no core. He’s never done one damn thing that didn’t lead to him being POTUS. He never cared about any of the rest of it. A job at the U.N. – even THE job at the U.N. is more tasking and less glamourous. His shit won’t fly at the U.N. He’d have to work. Plus, the American media won’t be around.
Investment: I suspect those who “invested” in Obama expect a return they have not gotten. Jarrett doesn’t want to be sent back to Chicago. Don’t underestimate her power.
I don’t know who will win. I really don’t. I do know that part of me wants to see an Obama 2nd term if only because it will be when he’s destroyed utterly. The GOP will snap Obama 2.0. He loses and we’ll never have that moment. If anything can make him bow out this summer it’s him coming to realize just how ugly it will get. But he’s probably too thick headed to realize how much venom has built up against him. Lord knows, Holder is. My theory: The GOP wants to sink him in September. After the convention.
One more thing “the age of austerity” is here. See San Diego and San Jose’s election – they matter even more than Wisconsin. The results are damning. The “powers that be” will want to this era to move forward. Obama gets in the way….another reason he’s in more trouble than we see. Entitlement reform is coming. Obama’s mouth and fecklessness will be a nuisance in 2013. A powerful faction wants to get done what W failed to get done in his second term. I don’t support this but it’s coming nonetheless.
Thanks for a thoughtful answer, I have only known one other person like O in my life, and he was a boy in the neighborhood when my kids were growing up.
No matter the game, he always hit or threw the ball farthest, in his opinion, he never struck out, he was always ‘robbed’..In a foot race he was the fastest runner, except the sun got in his eyes, or the grass was too long, only on the path where he was running. I love kids in general, but that one drove me up the wall. By refusing to deal with the obvious, he never improved himself, everything was the fault of someone or something else.
O’s h.s. basketball coach referred to a similar situation, despite mediocre skills, he kept insisting he should be a starter.’
I know there is a psychiatric label for those whose self image is totally distorted, but can’t recall the proper term for it.. Is ‘nutjob’ acceptable ?
Five years from now, it will be knowns as Obamapathy. People will be known as Obamapaths.
“Narcissist”
We had a kid in the neighborhood like O when my kids were growing up.. He was a legend in his own mind. Climbed the highest, threw the ball the farthest, and got robbed when he struck out at soft ball games..O’s h.s. basketball coach referred to him as a mediocre player who couldn’t fathom why he was seated on the side lines.
I know that psychology has identified the problem of having a wildly distorted self image, don’t remember the medical terminology. ‘Nutjob’ works for me.
Thanks for the thoughtful response John,
oops, sorry, my idiot pc strikes again, it couldn’t be my lack of skill, could it?
I know, it’s never my fault either when my pc double posts.
Obamapath, perfect Jay. He’ll be historical in more ways than one.
Obama is a bully. A lot of pols are. But I would argue that he is an extreme one. The further up the power chain he goes the worse he has become. His use of federal agencies to threaten, the DOJ as enforcer, his fascination with drones and kill lists all point to an extreme thuggish bully. I think his bullying streak has been broken. His acolytes are the toadying types who gravitate to a stongman. Others went along to go along. Many more were threatened into compliance or co-operation. When a bully falls it is fast and mean. I think the moving parts to take out the bully are clicking into place. The national security leaks to make Obama look the hero were like the wiretap that takes out the mafia boss. Obama’s gang could not resist preening or keep their mouths shut.
True, and like most bullies, he will hide behind someone else’s skirts when the time comes to own up to his nastiness.
I am still waiting for an explanation as to why all the members of Seal Team 6 were allowed to travel in one helicopter. That scenario is so far from standard policy, it is ludicrous. There seems to have been little to no effort to find and punish those responsible.
Then again, the entire incident was shoved under the rug at warp speed. Did they know something about the Bin Laden kill that didn’t jibe with the public story ?
I read somewhere that the O team planned on publishing the photos from the kill during the campaign, yeah that’ll do the trick for an O victory.
There is sense that everything they are doing is because of panic. They are not thinking straight and the mistakes they are making are laughable. I also think that they know there is a group of loosely associated political types that are gunning to take him down and they cannot identify all of them and some of them are basically untouchable. They are also taking what the Republicans are doing and making it exponentially worse for Obama. He is surrounded by wolves and he cannot see all of them. Expect more panic and stupid mistakes. Poke him with a stick.
Lulu, for some reason, I was thinking about John Mitchell this morning. For those of us who lived through Watergate, it was amazing to watch this power player go down in flames for his President. He ended up in some country club jail.. Your comment about wolves is true, can anyone even imagine Eric Holder doing the same for O? No need to watch tv re-runs this summer when we have our national soap opera to entertain us. They’re all weasels.
I was in college during Watergate. It was riveting. Watergate was the tip of the iceberg with Nixon and the public was genuinely appalled. Things like this move much faster now with the innertubes but Holder is very Mitchell-like, a real scuzzball but I am not sure he would be willing to sit in prison for Obama. But where is the crazy drunk wife calling people and spilling the beans? We want a Martha. LOL.
And, as it turns out, Martha might NOT have been a crazy person. If she was (crazy, that is) she woed it all to the nasty man she married – and the people he hung out with.
“His” White House didn’t leak anything. Those stories were fabrications, designed to make Obama look courageous and in control. He doesn’t have a kill list anymore than I do, and he wouldn’t know Stuxnet if it challenged him to a one-on-one on the White House basketball court.
WATCH the guy. LISTEN to him. He is not involved in any meaningful way in our government. That’s why he cannot talk details and why he “um’s” his way through a string of generalities when asked a question.
It’s just friggin’ hilarious that their fantasyland push of “Tough-Guy Obama” has raised questions of treasonous leaks.
“O, what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive”- Sir Walter Scott
O was programmed to give “the big speech” and not much else. First president in forerever who has chosen NOT to address us from the oval office, except for during the BP oil gusher thing.
Nope, O’s gotta have the swooning crowd dynamic going on– or a sympathetic talk show host in misty light– to make his point(s).
Kim~ I am so relieved to know that I am not alone in the disbelief that the “kill list” and baseball cards of intended targets exists! I got pretty mad when I first heard of it, but more and more, I think the “leak” was definitely intended to build up this weakling into an unrecognizable being who is of legendary strength and power. I keep thinking of “C’est Moi” in the musical “Camelot” when I think of TehOnce.
I love these two comments.
“Had I been made the partner of Eve, we’d be in Eden still.”
Well that fits, since he’s probably only half straight.
I believe there is a kill list — others have confirmed it.
But it looks like taking the credit for stuxnet (a violation of international law and an act of war, btw) is bogus. Some Mossad guys said, ‘yeah, right.’
There is a stuxnet & there is a kill list. What Obama is lying about is his involvement in both. He does not give a fart who gets targeted by drones as long as it makes him look tough.
Which half of him is straight ?
Certainly not the part that spent 20 minutes each day at Reggie Love’s apt.
Tamer says: “I believe there is a kill list — others have confirmed it.”
“Others” are always good witnesses!
Take this to the bank- and no, I can’t give you links- there may indeed be a kill list, but O is NOT riding herd over it. He is a front man, an actor, a clown. Nothing more. Again– TAKE THAT TO THE BANK. Pay attention and your own lying eyes will tell you the same thing.
Watch and listen, then tell me that you believe that this guy has his hand on the wheel of our country in any meaningful way.
NOPE!
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