Obama alone: This president does not need intel briefers

WaPo ^ | 9/13/2012 | Marc Thiessen

[GSWarrior]

I didn't see it developing at the time, but the narrative surrounding Libya appears to have been sculpted as Obama's crowning foreign policy achievement.

It is circle-the-wagons time for the Obama camp.

There are people out there who desperately want to turn this into a Romney gaffe and who also want to blame this entirely on some lame youtube video. Obama is blameless.

[COUNTrecount]

Vietor’s reply is quite revealing. It is apparently a point of pride in the White House that Obama’s PDB is “not briefed to him.” In the eyes of this administration, it is a virtue that the president does not meet every day with senior intelligence officials. This president, you see, does not need briefers. He can forgo his daily intelligence meeting because he is, in Vietor’s words, “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

Why would Barry need to go to briefings from our government when he gets them from his puppet masters on his Blackberry?

[COUNTrecount]

Vietor’s reply is quite revealing. It is apparently a point of pride in the White House that Obama’s PDB is “not briefed to him.” In the eyes of this administration, it is a virtue that the president does not meet every day with senior intelligence officials. This president, you see, does not need briefers. He can forgo his daily intelligence meeting because he is, in Vietor’s words, “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

Why would Barry need to go to briefings from our government when he gets them from his puppet masters on his Blackberry?

[txrefugee]

Maybe if we all join hands and chant “Obamaaaaaa...” the dead will come back to life.

There is nothing as ignorant as a Democrat voter...or as dangerous.

[jpsb]

"It is circle-the-wagons time for the Obama camp."

They better have a lot of wagons. One does not have to be very bright to see that Obamas' embracing the Arab Spring was at best very dumb. The other possibilities are even more worrisome. How Obama reacts will be interesting. How the media reacts will be interesting. How the voters will react should make Romney happy.

[ZOOKER]

Fertile ground for a campaign commercial, if Romney has the guts.

I'm picturing stock footage of Obama at fundraisers and on the golf course, interspersed with pictures of an empty chair at various meetings - intelligence, job council, etc.

Finish it off with video of bedside table at the WH - clock on the table reads 3 AM, phone with presidential seal ringing, and ringing, and ringing...

[Hoodat]

This is the part that gets me:

(This new line of defense was echoed this morning by my Post colleague, Dana Milbank, who writes that Bush was briefed every day by his intelligence advisers because he “decided he would prefer to read less.”)

The reason Bush showed up in person is so that he could ask questions, give orders, and set policy. It's what a leader does. Obama chooses instead to vote 'Present'.

[Hoodat]

Sit and listen to a briefing? It’s above his pay grade.