During the Bush years (or during any Republican Presidential administration) stories like this would dominate the news cycle and serve as fodder for pundits and late night comedians for weeks. So far, the Mainstream Media has been reluctant to widely report the following revelations, probably because they are about themselves a Democratic President.
White House Insider on Obama: “the President is Losing It.”
A longtime Washington D.C. insider, and former advisor to the Obama election campaign and transition team, speaks out on an administration in crisis, and a president increasingly withdrawn from the job of President.
2008 gave America an incredibly charismatic candidate for President of the United States. Speech after speech showed a candidate with increasing momentum as primary race after primary race concluded. And then came the nomination, more speeches, culminating in an election night victory.
According to the person sitting across from me, those were incredibly exciting times, even for one who had been a participant with three previous presidential hopefuls … When I asked this insider if the media gave candidate Obama an assist throughout his campaign, it elicits a sly smile. Sure – we definitely had people in the media on our side. Absolutely. We went so far as to give them specific ideas for coverage. The ones who took that advice from the campaign were granted better access, and Obama was the biggest story in 2008, so yeah, that gave us a lot of leverage.
But after Obama was sworn in, things began to change? Almost immediately. Obama loved to campaign. He clearly didn’t like the work of being President though, and that attitude was felt by the entire White House staff within weeks after the inauguration. Obama the tireless, hard working candidate became a very tepid personality to us. And the few news stories that did come out against him were the only things he seemed to care about. He absolutely obsesses over Fox News. For being so successful, Barack Obama is incredibly thin-skinned. He takes everything very personally.
And you state he despises Joe Biden? Oh yeah. That is very well known in the White House. Obama chose Biden for one reason – to have an older white guy with some international policy credentials. Period. If Biden has all of this international experience that Obama found so valuable, why has he buried him under the pile of crap that became the stimulus bill? What does Joe Biden know about budgets and economics? Not much – but Obama didn’t care. Give Joe a job and get him the hell out of my hair – that pretty much sums up the president’s feelings toward Joe Biden.
What about Hillary Clinton? Obama is scared to death of Hillary. He doesn’t trust her – obsesses over her almost as much as he does Fox News. He respects her though, which might be why he fears her so much as well. He talks the game, but when it comes down to it, she has played the game on a far tougher level than he has, and Obama knows that.
So how bad are things at the White House these days? I don’t know about right now, because I have not been there in over a month. But I still hear things, and I know what it was like when I left. It’s not good. As bad as it might look to voters based on what they do know, it’s much worse. The infighting is off the charts. You got a Chief of Staff who despises cabinet members, advisors who despise the Chief of Staff, a President and First Lady having their own issues…
Make sure you read the whole thing, because there is a whole lot more.
To paraphrase a familiar cliche, if you’re surprised by any of this, you haven’t been paying attention. As reluctant as I usually am to follow gossip, I was struck by the sheer amount of plausibility in this story. Obama’s detachment, paranoia, and thin-skinned petulance have all been increasingly on display during the last nine months. But what else should we reasonably expect from a man who, throughout his entire career, has been handed everything on a silver platter by powerful higher-ups and guardian angels? The party is over now, and he is being judged solely on the quality of his performance and the effectiveness of his policies — both of which have been very poor. Being a “rising star” in the arenas of social action and progressive politics is one thing, but being the leader of the free world is quite another, and clearly Barack Obama was not ready for that challenge.
His frustration is also taking a toll on his private life. Unfortunately, circumstances like the ones reported in this story are often what lead to marital infidelity. Obviously this would make things even worse for the President.
If you are a praying person, you should include the President in your prayers. He is our President after all. And he is clearly in a lot of trouble.
(h/t Doug Ross)
