I am beginning to suspect that Barack Obama is incapable of making a decision.  This would not surprise me, because I have known many people in positions of power who cannot make a decision.  These people typically ask for more and more information in a desperate hope that circumstances will make the decision for them.  Often they make the decision to not make a decision, which is usually the worst possible decision.

To those of you who are Downton Abbey fans, this scenario played out with regard to the youngest daughter.  She was showing symptoms of eclampsia.  The local doctor wanted to do an emergency C section, which he admitted was a high risk procedure.  The high-priced London doctor wanted to wait; because he wasn’t convinced she had eclampsia.  The delay in making a decision resulted in her becoming extremely ill to the point where there were no options.  She died shortly after giving birth, with the parents and the husband watching hopelessly wracked with guilt.

Sometimes, the situation demands a strong person willing to make a decision.  The President of the United States has a duty to make decisions.  But I can’t recall a single circumstance where President Obama made a tough call.  By all accounts, he didn’t approve the raid on Osama bin Laden until the last possible moment.  If sources are correct, he only made it then because he really didn’t have a choice.  We know that he definitely did not make a decision about Benghazi during the evening of September 11, 2012.  He couldn’t even make a decision on how to handle the fiscal cliff.  That is why Republicans, in an act of desperation, reached out to Joe Biden. 

I don’t think Obama is capable of making a decision about Eric Holder.  I think he will just ignore the problem and hope that the decision is made for him.  He will wait until Republicans have some smoking gun evidence so overpowering that Obama will have no choice.  At this point, I am not even sure that Obama has made the decision to make a decision.  That is what makes this situation so difficult to predict and so potentially dangerous for the President. 

Every administration has a lot of palace intrigue.  Dick Cheney and Colin Powell were definitely at odds and Cheney even mixed it up with Condoleezza Rice.  But in the Bush administration, everyone knew that George W. Bush would make the final decision.  No one questioned who was in charge.

I am sure there is at least as much turmoil within the Obama administration and this is exacerbated by Obama’s inability to make a decision.  We are already starting to see leaks by people who want Holder to resign.  Other people are desperately lobbying Obama to keep Holder.  There appears to be a strong contingent in the White House that doesn’t think there is a problem.  The least likely outcome is a bold and decisive move by Obama.  It just isn’t in his character.

Those who cannot make decisions, have decisions forced upon them.  I don’t think this Republican congress can tolerate Holder remaining in office.  The Republican base will come unglued if that happens.  Holder clearly misrepresented the truth in his testimony before congress.  However I am sure Republicans would really rather not get into a word parsing contest to determine whether or not this amounted to perjury.  But they may not have a choice, because neither the White House nor Holder is willing to admit that this was even an error.

Unless Holder resigns sooner, rather than later, we are probably headed toward a constitutional crisis.  Most administrations have found a way to avoid this type of constitutional challenge.  But if Obama cannot bring himself to make a decision, Republicans may have no alternative but to challenge him.  If this is allowed to escalate it may be difficult, if not impossible, for either side to back down.

TDM

Watching the mess in Washington DC these days reminds me of the song from the Thomas Crown Affair, “The Windmills of Your Mind.”  A couple of the lines seem very appropriate to describe the current Washington Merry-go-round:

Round like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone

Barack Obama appears to be caught in a time warp.  He can neither move forward or backward.  He desperately needs to fire Eric Holder, but he also desperately needs Holder to stay in office. 

The investigation of Eric Holder has been assigned to Eric Holder.  If there is to be a Special Counsel, he or she would be appointed by Holder.  The FBI probe of the IRS scandal was ordered by Holder.  The one man we must be able to trust is the one man who cannot be trusted.   

Did Holder commit perjury?  I don’t know.  It depends on how generous one wants to be in parsing his testimony.   Could a skilled lawyer make an argument that this wasn’t precisely perjury?  The answer is yes.  It is similar to when Bill Clinton tried to explain his lie by saying it depends on the meaning of the word “is.”  The sad reality is that the testimony Holder gave was extremely deceptive.  We are left to wonder whether this was the result of mere incompetence or perjury.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter.  In either case, this is not someone we can trust.

Michael Gerson nailed this in his May 29, 2013 opinion in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-eric-holders-tenure-marked-by-incompetence/2013/05/29/f570e7ba-c881-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html

Forcing Holder to resign really matters.  It is not that getting rid of Holder would solve all problems.  It won’t.  It is rather that Holder is the one person in the administration who probably knows where the bodies are buried.   

If Holder goes Obama will have to appoint someone acceptable to both parties as a replacement.  He will have to appoint someone with a reputation for honesty and integrity.  Even if he appoints someone like Deval Patrick, which is the latest rumor, that may really change things.  Deval Patrick is a liberal Democrat and a strong supporter of Obama, but unlike Obama he is a man of legitimate accomplishment.  Patrick actually has the kind of academic credentials that are falsely attributed to Obama.    

I don’t know if Patrick would be the choice to replace Holder, but that is at least a rumor.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/report-obama-eyes-deval-patrick-to-replace-holder/

If you want to understand Deval Patrick, you need to look at the case of Benjamin LaGuer.

http://www.freebennow.org/

Patrick even contributed $5,000 for DNA testing that most people thought would clear LaGuer.  Instead the DNA evidence confirmed his guilt.  Significantly, Patrick stopped supporting the release of LaGuer when he learned the facts.

He has also done something Eric Holder could never do, he has admitted mistakes.  He made a call on behalf of Citigroup,and at first tried to defend it by saying he was calling as a private citizen, not a governor.  He later backed down and said:  ”I appreciate that I should not have made the call.  I regret the mistake.”  The point is that at least with Patrick there appears to be a line he simply will not cross.  There is no such line with Holder.

In the meantime we are caught in the Windmills of the Mind  always circling back to Eric Holder.  Almost any alternative would be better than this. 

TDM

The liberal left is desperately trying to save Eric Holder.  That should be no surprise, because he is the primary defender of Barack Obama.  This is really sad.  The Attorney General is supposed to be the most ethical member of the cabinet.  This is the person who is supposed to uphold the law.  Instead he is either hopelessly incompetent or a deliberate liar.

Here is exactly what Holder said:

HOLDER: Well, I would say this: With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be a wise policy. In fact, my view is quite the opposite that, what I proposed during my confirmation, what the Obama administration supported during 2009 and I understand — I think Senator Schumer is now introducing a bill that we are going to support, as well — that the press should be — should have — there should be a shield law with regard to the press’s ability to the gather information and to disseminate it.

The — because the focus should be on those people who break their oaths and put the American people at risk, not reporters who gather this information. That should not be the focus of these investigations. [House Judiciary Committee hearing, 5/15/13, via Nexis]

Media matters, one of those tax exempt organizations not targeted by the I.R.S. is trying desperately to pretend this is not perjury.  The logic in the following article is pretty tortured, even for Media matters:

http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/05/28/fox-news-gets-its-flawed-holder-perjury-investi/194244

Of course if you start any article by bad mouthing Fox News a certain segment of the liberal left will be too busy applauding to bother reading the rest of the article.  The problem with this analysis is that it would require the entire White House Press Corps to be terminally stupid to buy this nonsense.  More and more of them have turned on Holder.  Holder called an off-the-record meeting with the White House Press Corps and they told him no.

Holder’s statement is hard to explain because it was an incredibly dumb thing to say.  If he knew that warrant was going to be released one would at least expect a better lie.  This is pathetic.   I don’t think Holder knew the DOJ was about to release a copy of the warrant with his signature.

That may be an indication that there are some people in the DOJ who are fed up with this and they released these documents without bothering to kiss the ring.  These are U.S. Attorneys and they knew exactly what would happen.  Media matters may not recognize a perjury trap, but a U.S. Attorney sure would.   The DOJ is famous for selective leaks.  Perhaps, just perhaps, someone leaked the ultimate back at yah.

TDM

President Obama ended the Iraq war by declaring war fatigue.  There was no pretense of victory or even accomplishment.  It just ended because people were sick of it.  Then he used the same technique to end the “necessary war” in Afghanistan.  According to Obama all wars must eventually end, so he will declare that one over too.  Once again there was no pretense of victory or accomplishment.  Last week he declared the war on terror to be over.  Obama believes that because Osama bin Laden is dead, that war is over too. 

He didn’t try to win the war in Iraq or Afghanistan.  He didn’t even try to win the war against terrorism.  Instead, he just changed the name.  He claimed that the war against terror has been won, because it is no longer possible to have a terrorist attack.  As long as he denies defining events as terrorist attacks, there can be no terrorist attacks, so he can claim victory.

This is how Obama plans to deal with all these scandals.  He refuses to consider them scandals.  If he doesn’t call them scandals, they can’t actually be scandals.  Later, after months of delay, he will declare an end to scandals because everyone has scandal fatigue. 

This probably would have worked if the scandals were just about money or even sex.  This might even have worked if it was just about Benghazi.  The news media and the liberal left were already willing to ignore Benghazi.  But this time because we have the I.R.S. auditing people for political purposes and we have the DOJ calling reporters criminal co-conspirators.  No one likes the I.R.S. and the press is stupid, but not that stupid. 

He can and will still lie and pretend that the economy is doing ok.  His friends in the media will still chime in with support. He can and will still lie and pretend that our foreign policy is somehow secretly successful.  His friends will back him on that too.  But no one is pretending that the scandals represent anything resembling success.  At best, they are evidence of gross incompetence.  At worst?  His friends are reduced to saying he is not evil, just stupid.  It is really bad when your best defense is that you were merely oblivious.

 Yes, we will soon develop scandal fatigue.  Obama is right about that.  But the country will develop a severe case of Obama fatigue long before that happens.  Who knows what will happen with regard to any of these scandals.  We are soon to enter the finger pointing stage where politicians scream blame at each other.  The Republicans seem to have the upper hand, but they have a long history of botching things up and they could easily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  It is hard to predict the final outcome.  But we do know one thing.  We know that Barack Obama is a total failure as a leader.  Being oblivious may keep him in office, but it won’t keep him in power.  The real question is who or what will replace him.

 TDM

Peter Morici is a well-respected professor at the University of Maryland.  He is frequently featured on all the networks, including CNN, CBS, BBC, ABC, ABC, CNBS, NPR, NPB and FOX.  That makes his article from United Press International all the more devastating for Obama:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2013/05/23/Outside-View-The-IRS-scandal-smoking-gun/UPI-57631369281780/?spt=hs&or=an

He points out the obvious.  President Obama issued an unprecedented executive order in 2009 that allows the union to have pre-decisional involvement in all workplace matters.  This is the same union that solicits contributions from members to campaign against the Tea Party.  The results were inevitable.  Obama didn’t have to suggest anything, he knew what would happen. 

The president isn’t uninformed or incompetent — he is cynical and corrupt.

We didn’t know that he was so lacking in moral fiber and self-restraint when we elected him because as a senator, both in Illinois and Washington, he spent most of his time running for higher office. We never observed him exercising discretion and dealing with tough choices as a legislator or executive.

Having chosen him in haste, the nation can repent at its leisure.

Things are so bad that even the Chicago Tribune is now calling for a Special Prosecutor:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-irs-20130523,0,7599948.story

The Tribune endorsed Obama for re-election in October of 2012.

The Attorney General of the United States is the only one who can appoint a special prosecutor.  What a mess.  How do we recover from corruption from the Cabinet office that is most responsible to uphold the law?  Would you trust Eric Holder to investigate this administration?  Would you trust anyone appointed by Eric Holder to investigate this administration?  I really don’t see how anyone could have much faith in Holder at this point.  Even the Huffington Post has recommended that Holder resign.  The following article shows how quickly support for Holder is evaporating:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/eric-holder-fox-news-james-rosen-warrant_n_3328663.html

A lot of us thought Holder should have been fired years ago.  I won’t bore people with the long list of problems.  But last week, under oath, Holder said the following:

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/05/24/holder-commit-perjury-week/

With regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy. In fact, my view is quite the opposite

When Holder lied before that House Committee last week he was being questioned by Hank Johnson, Democrat from Georgia. Johnson was trying to make the case that Holder would have some justification in investigating the AP.  It was clearly a line of questioning trying to be favorable to Holder.  At the end Johnson yielded his remaining time to Holder, which is when Holder told the big lie.

It is now confirmed that Holder personally approved the Warrant for James Rosen’s e-mails.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/24/holder-probing-holder-obama-orders-doj-review-over-search-warrant-ag-likely/

One would think the end is near for Holder.  Even liberals and Democrats are deserting him after this.   But, there is a problem.  Obama can neither afford to keep him nor afford to lose him.  So far Obama has been pretty much in-your-face about all these scandals.  He may continue to defy everyone and declare that Holder stays and that he trusts Holder to do the investigation.

Some wise folks would tell him that he risks a full scale constitutional crisis, but that still may not deter Obama.  Democrats, particularly Obama, believe that the American people punished Republicans for impeaching Bill Clinton.  They believe that Republicans will blink before engaging in a full scale constitutional conflict with Obama.  I think they are right about Republicans, but if Obama continues on the current path, they will eventually have no choice.

In any event, we have a tasty Morici and this is a very serious blow to Obmaa.

 TDM

Definition of YOICKS:

“The cry used by the huntsman to encourage the hounds”

I have never been a fan of the fox hunt.  Hunting in England was typically reserved for the wealthy elite landowners.  They thought it great fun to go on a fox hunt.  They would assemble a whole team to chase one unfortunate fox.  There would be specially trained hounds and the wealthy participants would typically be on horseback.  The fox seldom had much of a chance.  I never found much sport in this.

The liberal left has been engaged in a different kind of Fox hunt for years.  For example in 2004 a movie was produced called:  “OutFoxed.”  Following is how the liberal left viewed this masterpiece:

http://www.outfoxed.org/

Outfoxed examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, have been running a “race to the bottom” in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public’s right to know.

One would think that with most of the media lined up to take down the Fox, that the result was inevitable.  But it didn’t turn out that way.  Instead Fox grew in stature while the news media outlets dominated by the liberal left were shredding viewers.

This should have given the Fox News haters pause, but instead it just encouraged them.  I cannot begin to recall all the times when someone on CNN, or ABC, or NBC, or CBS or MSNBC sneered down their nose at Fox News.  It was so bad that if Fox News reported on a story the rest of the media would desperately try to ignore it completely. 

I still remember when Brian Wilson introduced his “staff” on “Rock Center.”  These effete left wing snobs gloated over the prospects of returning television journalism to its more cultured roots.  It was nauseating.  The only time I was more appalled was I accidentally watched “Parker Spitzer” and was treated to Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker trying to out snob each other.   They were both so busy trying to sound suave and sophisticated they didn’t realize that what they were saying was utter nonsense.

Rock Center was finally cancelled in May.  You probably don’t know that, because cancelling a show no one wanted to watch isn’t a big deal.  Of course Brian Wilson remains in denial:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/11/brian-williams-rock-center-cancellation-nbc_n_3259278.html

“I’m so proud of the work we did,” Williams said. “Our people got shot at for this broadcast. They pulled countless all-nighters. They investigated, cajoled, hustled and cared deeply. They won awards, won the respect of their colleagues and produced great television journalism.”

He was shattered that no one else would be willing to run a 10 minute report on a tribal dispute in Ecuador.  Apparently Brian Wilson thinks those types of stories are what really matters.

The truth is that the Fox won because while the rest of the media was chasing the Fox, the Fox was chasing the news.  Since all these scandals broke, Fox News ratings have skyrocketed and MSNBC is looking for a volunteer to turn out the lights after everyone else has left the building.

Fox was on the scent of the biggest story of our lifetime.  It’s too bad that all those folks chasing the Fox didn’t bother to look around during the hunt.  If they had, they just might have realized what they were missing.  At least some of them have started to figure this out.  That means that soon all those people hunting Fox will be hunting Obama and eventually Hillary.  They will probably be a lot more successful than they were chasing the Fox, because skilled hunters follow the scent and these scandals have left a very strong odor.

When this is dead and done the main stream media is going to be extremely embarrassed.  They have been ignoring all the warning flags about Obama since day one.   They were part of parcel of a plot between the Democratic Party, the Obama administration and the main stream media to turn a blind eye to the obvious.  Instead of paying attention to those warning signals, they tried their best to shoot the messenger, Fox News.  Now, they are quickly learning that Fox News was right all along.  I know at least some of them have the decency to be embarrassed.

This has already unraveled too far for anyone to knit back together.  Today we learned that one of the key players, Lois Lerner, has advised congress that she intends to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying Wednesday:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/05/21/irs-official-lois-lerner-to-plead-the-fifth/

 “The committee has been contacted by Ms. Lerner’s lawyer who stated that his client intended to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to answer questions,”

Lois Lerner is the Director of the I.R.S. Exempt Organizations division.  Obviously she has lawyered up and has been warned about the dangers of committing perjury while testifying before congress.  This is an ominous development for the administration.  When public officials at this level start pleading the Fifth Amendment there is no turning back.  Remember that if they give her immunity, she still has to testify and she can still be charged with perjury if she lies.  You can ask Oliver North about that.

Darryl Issa issued a warning to Hillary Clinton that she would be called to testify and that she should be prepared.  When Hillary testified last time, she was not sworn in under oath.  When Condoleezza Rice testified before congress, Democrats required her to be sworn in.  Hillary will be subpoenaed to testify and this time Republicans will insist on her being sworn in.  It will be high drama.

In the meantime, Fox News is basking in the warm glow of total vindication while watching this all unravel.  Sometimes, the Fox does win the hunt.  Yoicks!

TDM

The Obama administration sent out Dan Pfeiffer to be on all the Sunday morning talk shows.  Pfeiffer was his usual self, which means he didn’t answer any questions.  He just kept reciting Democratic talking points.  Up until now, that usually worked.  The main stream media was more than willing to accept this kind of crap, in the past.  That has changed overnight.

Chris Wallace asked Pfeiffer where Obama was and what was he doing on the night of September 11, 2012.  When Pfeiffer tried to filibuster his way out of answering Wallace got angry and said:  “with all due respect” you didn’t answer the question.  When someone says “with all due respect” due respect is the last thing on their mind.  Wallace told Pfeiffer he wasn’t buying it and he let Pfeiffer have it when he refused to answer a direct question.  Eventually Pfeiffer gave the idiotic response that this was “irrelevant.”  I am sure that a lot of people watched this interview and alarm bells started going off.  One has to assume that Pfeiffer knows the answer, but he was desperate to avoid answering the question.  This is clear evidence that there is something big they are trying to hide.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/348742/pfeiffer-%E2%80%98largely-irrelevant%E2%80%99-where-president-was-throughout-benghazi-attacks-andrew

Wallace just destroyed Pfeiffer.  It was a complete mismatch.

It was even worse on “Face the Nation,” primarily because the Obama administration expects tough questions from Fox News.  They do not expect if from CBS.  In his commentary Bob Schieffer literally drew a comparison between the Nixon Administration and the Obama Administration, which he described as “Dumb and Dumber.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147143n

When you are compared to the Nixon administration and you are the dumber part of Dumb and Dumber, you are in serious trouble.  Schieffer described Obama as joining the long list of people in this administration who know nothing about anything. He clearly was not impressed and he wasn’t buying it.

The Obama administration is botching this big time.  Their strategy, as described by Pfeiffer on:  “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” is not only arrogant, it is stupid:

 “We are going to work with Congress, as the president said, in legitimate oversight,” Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to Obama, said today on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” program. “What we’re not going to participate in is a partisan fishing expedition designed to distract from the real issues at hand.”

They really think they can write off the I.R.S. scandal as a fishing expedition launched by hysterical Republicans.  That is hopelessly naïve. During the CBS round table discussion it was pointed out that everyone knew that the I.R.S. was being accused of targeting the Tea Party last year.  Of course they knew.  The Tea Party was squealing like a stuck pig. But this was dismissed by News organizations because no one in the media believed the Obama administration could be that stupid.  They were wrong.  They were exactly that stupid.

The Obama administration still believes that the liberal media will come to their rescue and they won’t have to answer questions.  Obama is so used to getting a free pass that he is in a state of denial refusing to believe that those days are over.  I don’t believe that Republicans are capable of removing Barack Obama from office.  But, if Obama keeps going on the current path, he may ultimately remove himself.

I suspect some senior Republicans have mixed feeling about whether they even want this to go much further.  They already have Obama where they want him.  His agenda is in flames.  They know, because of the fallout from the Clinton impeachment, they will also incur casualties if they get into a war with the Obama administration. .

In the meantime, Obama sent in Pfeiffer and he fizzled.  Since Jay Carney also flamed out one has to wonder who will be next?  Obama is running out of people stupid enough to try and sell this nonsense.  Since the truth is not an option, it is hard to predict what will happen next.

TDM

I must admit that I do not like Piers Morgan.  I did find him mildly amusing, on occasion, when he was a judge on America’s Got Talent.  My favorite was when some guy did a pole dancing routine.  Morgan said:  “There’s a reason there are no night clubs featuring male pole dancers.”  But, for some reason, probably horrible ratings, Morgan went on a personal crusade to promote gun regulation in the U.S.  He became famous for heated arguments with pro-gun advocates.  He particularly sneered about those who said the 2^nd Amendment was necessary to protect us against tyranny.  On more than one occasion he described gun advocates as people who did not have a single legitimate argument to support their position.  I became a charter member of the ship Piers Morgan’s sorry ass back to England crowd.

Earlier this week, I watched Piers Morgan interview Penn Jillette.  I was shocked to hear Morgan say that while he continued to support gun control, the recent scandals had made him realize that gun advocates had a point.  He said that the actions of the I.R.S. harassing conservative groups and the DOJ spying on journalists made it obvious that we did have a tyrannical government and we were right to fear them.  He said he still supports gun control but he had to concede that gun advocates have a legitimate argument.

I only stumbled on this segment by accident.  I avoid watching Piers Morgan for the same reason I avoid watching Jane Fonda.  I can’t afford to purchase a new television.  Seeing either of these two people generates an irresistible urge to do great harm to the television broadcasting their face.  But I was switching channels and I saw Penn Jillette, who I find amusing.  I also knew that Jillette is actually pretty conservative so I started to listen.  I was so shocked that I thought I had misunderstood, so I went back and played the segment several times.

The following article from Brietbart.com shows video of that interview, along with similar remarks from Joe Scarborough:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/05/18/Joe-Scarborough-Piers-Morgan-Concede-gun-rights-activists-not-crazy

This reminds me of when Morgan ridiculed President George W. Bush for falling off a Segway.  He felt than only an idiot like Bush could fall off what he described as a self-balancing machine.  Piers thought that was great fun.  That is until he tried to ride a Segway himself fell off and suffered a very serious injury.

Although a shrinking number of Democrats are trying to ignore the significance of these scandals, more and more people get it.  In particular, the folks in the media get it.  Piers Morgan interviewed Jay Carney and it turned out to be devastating.  Some people criticized Morgan for asking softball questions.  But the reality is that whether this was intended or not, he gave Carney enough rope to do a great job of publicly hanging himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbFUKg4w1k4

One cannot watch this video without understanding that Piers Morgan considers Jay Carney’s answers to be utter nonsense.  Ultimately, the Obama administration has botched this so badly and this is so obvious that they even flunked their Pier review.

TDM

President Obama was challenged on the IRS scandal Thursday.  His answer is all the evidence you need that this is a huge scandal that is going to get worse, much worse:

“I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the (inspector general) report” beforehand,

We can pretty much guarantee that this response was written with the help of legal counsel and it was rehearsed.  This is a classic example of providing the minimal possible amount of information, while appearing to answer the question.  He did not say he didn’t know about the IRS targeting conservatives.  He also didn’t say he didn’t know about the investigation.  What he said what that he didn’t know what the IG report would say before it was released. 

The President has been quick quick to tell obvious lies about numerous other subjects.  He certainly lied about Benghazi.  There was nowhere near the word parsing that we see here.  He is looking and acting like someone who is being targeted in an investigation.  Most people who are being investigated are advised to shut up and let their attorney handle any questions.  The President obviously cannot do that.  He can pull a “Clinton” and say he can’t remember (like Hillary and Eric Holder), or he can say something like this.  He tells part of the story, he parses his words and he hopes this will sell.

This reminds me of the guy who was in a hot air balloon that was hopelessly lost.  He saw a farmer down below, so he shouted out:  “Do you know where I am?”  The farmer shouted back:  “Yes, you are in a hot air balloon.”  This was completely accurate information, but worthless information. 

TDM

The truth about President Obama is finally coming out.  It turns out that very little of this is consistent with either the narrative of his fawning supporters or his worst opponents.  His supporters thought he was a brilliant and gifted executive that would change the world.  His opponents thought he was an evil genius who would destroy the country.  Neither is true. 

Obama is not brilliant and he is not a gifted leader.  They should have known that, because the only shred of evidence supporting the brilliant theory was his two books, which were probably written by William Ayers.  He is gifted, only at reading a teleprompter and he has a wonderful smile.  He has never demonstrated leadership in the past, in any position, and he isn’t demonstrating leadership now.

He also isn’t an evil genius capable of destroying the country.  Oh, he may be radical enough, but he’s not skilled enough.  The number one characteristic of Obama is that he is lazy.  He wants to play the role of President, but he doesn’t want to “be” the President.  He always shoves the heavy lifting off to someone else.  He is also naïve.  Obama expects people to adore him, regardless of what he does.  He thinks that anyone who criticizes him is just too blinded by bias to see his brilliance.  Obama believes he is brilliant and will always believe he is brilliant and he ignores any evidence to the contrary.  Harvard did a detailed study and they determined that the number one characteristic of incompetent people is that they do not know they are incompetent.  Incompetent people are incapable of recognizing areas where they need to improve. 

Obama has certainly delivered a mess.  That is now obvious to both Democrats and Republicans.  Our economy stinks.  Our foreign relations stink.  And now the government is paralyzed by some incredibly stupid scandals.  The actions by the IRS are not nearly as frightening as they are plain stupid.  It is not that they targeted the Tea Party this way that matters, it is that they were so dumb about it.  It is even dumber to pretend that this was all the result of two rogue agents in Cincinnati.  Fast & Furious is about an insane plan to help ship guns to Mexico so we could complain about guns being shipped to Mexico.  The decision to wiretap the Associated Press was another really dumb idea.  The Press was already acting like Obama’s campaign staff.  Why on earth would he risk antagonizing them?  But the dumbest idea was to think they could spin the Benghazi attack as just some over enthusiastic response to a lousy video.  Granted they did manage to kick the can down the road past the election, but the truth was bound to come out sooner or later.  There were just too many witnesses.  Now they are being hammered for a lie that wasn’t even necessary. 

If you want a visual description of Obama and this administration, just check out the spy we sent to Russia to try and recruit an informant:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57584576/spy-capture-or-sleuth-setup-detention-of-alleged-u.s-spy-in-russia-raises-questions/

Some are speculating that our guy was set up.  If so, that just makes us even more stupid.  Has the CIA deteriorated this much?  We like to think of CIA operatives as Matt Damon in the Bourne Legacy.  These are horribly flawed moral characters, but at least they are highly skilled.  Instead we get some guy wearing a cheap wig with a fist full of dollars carrying a written idiotic proposal.  This is so incredibly bad that one has to suspect it is mostly true.  Putin is probably having trouble holding back the giggles.

Ultimately, I think this is where we are headed.  We may not find a direct connection to Obama on any of this.  He may not be impeached because you can’t get impeached for being lazy, indifferent and incompetent.  He has clearly lied on several occasions, but that may not qualify as a high crime and misdemeanor.  As President, he is obviously responsible, but as Barack Obama he probably wasn’t even involved.  Instead of an evil empire, think more about a pompous arrogant ass given the responsibility to run an insane asylum.  He quickly turns over the day to day management to the inmates and spends his time traveling the globe accepting awards for running the best insane asylum in the world.  Eventually everyone realizes that the management of the insane asylum is insane.  Perhaps the real epitaph for this administration will be “Dumb and Dumber.”

TDM