Pretty much everybody has heard the joke about lawyers:
“How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving.”
The same joke form could apply to President Obama.
“How do you know when the President is in CYA mode? He’s telling people he’s angry.”
What is he angry about now? The government response to the Ebola issue. Love the title:
Amid Assurances on Ebola, Obama Is Said to Seethe
Of course he is:
Beneath the calming reassurance that President Obama has repeatedly offered during the Ebola crisis, there is a deepening frustration, even anger, with how the government has handled key elements of the response.
Calming reassurance? It’s more like, “Oh, I have to work again? Damn!” You see, Ebola did not stop President Angry from playing his 200th round of golf.
If this all sounds familiar, it should. President Seething has been all kinds of angry before when the government has screwed up and it usually follows weeks of him and the administration acting as though people are being ridiculous because they’re concern.
But then more and more information comes out and before you know it, the media, when they get tired of sucking up to President Pissed Off, starts actually asking some pointed questions.
And then, voila! The press reports about President Furious start to leak out.
Secret Service hooker scandal.
The failed roll-out of the ACA.
President Irate follows this same pattern every time. When Thomas Duncan died due to the Ebola virus, what did President Up In Arms do? He traveled to California for a fundraiser. He came back and played that round of golf 5 days later.
If the pattern continues as it has in the past, we’ll soon start to hear from administration officials and from President Teed Off the about how this is all a “phony” scandal and how Republicans are just engaging in fear-mongering.
This is easy to predict. All one has to do is hop over to Media Matters and see what they’re saying. An arm of the DNC and the fuming Obama White House, Media Matters doesn’t even try to hide that their role is to protect President Vexed at all costs. Today they have a story that is titled:
How Right-Wing Media Have Used Ebola To Scare Americans
I’m sure it has nothing to do with Ebola’s 70% mortality rate that’s making Americans a tad nervous. No, it’s Rush Limbaugh and Fox News who are causing panic and getting people to worry over nothing.
President Choleric could avoid all of this pretty easily in the future. Perhaps if he acted like he gave a damn before things got bad, the administration wouldn’t feel the need to have to crawl to the press with reports of just how perturbed he is.
Skip some fundraisers next time. Try and stay off the golf course for a few days. Gather your top people to together and find out what’s going on. That is what somebody in an executive position is supposed to do. They don’t wait around, acting as though nothing is happening and then when it hits the fan, start pointing fingers and feigning being indignant.
Just for once, it would be great to see President In A Lather behave as if he cares right from the outset. Not wait for his poll numbers to dip and for the press to get antsy before he decides it is time to put on his angry hat.