THE PRESIDENT IS LOSING IT

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER ON OBAMA


A charter member of Team STORMBRINGER sent this in . . . I tried to find the source, found it; tried to find the author - did not find . . . therefore I share with you this fascinating piece in it's entirety . . . S.L.


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Obama election campaign and transition team, speaks out on an administration in crisis, and a president increasingly withdrawn from the job of President.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. Barack Obama appeared to move from one city to the next effortlessly, gaining confidence and motivation with each campaign stop. He was remarkable to watch.

He took the script, elevated it with his oration, left the crowds screaming for more, and then would do it all over again, time after time after time. On the campaign trail, Obama is a machine.

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.

Could Obama have succeeded without the media’s help?

Yeah, I think so. As I said, on the campaign trail he is very-very good. The opposition didn’t have near the energy, or the celebrity attraction that Obama brings. Plus, the country was burned out after eight years of Bush. We knew that going in. We knew that if we won the Democrat nomination, we were likely going to cruise our way to the White House – and that is exactly what we did.”

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.

How about Bill Clinton?

I never heard Obama say anything about Bill Clinton personally, though I was told he has cracked a few jokes about the former president since getting into the White House. I have heard that Bill Clinton does not like Barack Obama. That really started when Obama played the race card against him during the primary campaign. Apparently Clinton was apoplectic over that and still hasn’t gotten over it. If there is one thing I have learned in this town – don’t make an enemy of Bill Clinton.

So if Obama doesn’t appear interested in the job of president, what does he do day after day?

Well, he takes his meetings just like any other president would, though even then, he seems to lack a certain focus and on a few occasions, actually leaves with the directive that be given a summary of the meeting at a later date. I hear he plays a lot of golf, and watches a lot of television – ESPN mainly. I’ll tell you this – if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports. That gets him interested. You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off. It’s really very strange. I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right? Ivy League and all that. Well, that is not what I saw. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity. When he is off script, he is what I call a real “slow talker”. Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly. I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite letdown when you actually hear him talking without the script.

That sounds like you are calling Obama stupid to me.

No – I am not going to call him stupid. He just doesn’t strike me as particularly smart. Bill Clinton is a smart guy – he would run intellectual circles around Barack Obama. And Bill Clinton loved the politics of being president. Obama seems to think he shouldn’t have to be bothered, which has created a considerable amount of conflict among his staff.

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 . . .

Come again – what about the First Lady? (The insider takes a deep breath)

Ok, look, just like any other marriage, folks have issues. The Obamas are no different, except of course they are very high profile. I was told they were having issues before the campaign, and they have even more issues now. Maybe that is why Obama seems so detached – not so much the stress of the White House, but the stress of personal issues. I can certainly relate to that kind of situation.

Care to clarify some more on the Obama marriage?

No. That is all I will say about that. Don’t ask again.

Ok, back to President Obama then. In just a few words, how would you describe him these days?

Like I said, it’s been a while since I was last at the White House, but I don’t have a problem saying that the president is losing it. I don’t mean he is like losing his mind. I mean to say that he is losing whatever spark he had during the campaign. When you take away the crowds, Obama gets noticeably smaller. He shrinks up inside of himself. He just doesn’t seem to have the confidence to do the job of President, and it’s getting worse and worse. Case in point – just a few days before I left, I saw first hand the President of the United States yelling at a member of his staff. He was yelling like a spoiled child. And then he pouted for several moments after. I wish I was kidding, or exaggerating, but I am not. The President of the United States threw a temper tantrum. The jobs reports are always setting him off, and he is getting increasingly conspiratorial over the unemployment numbers. I never heard it myself, but was told that Obama thinks the banking system is out to get him now. That they and the big industries are making him pay for trying to regulate them more. That is the frame of mind the President is in these days. And you know what? Maybe he is right, who knows?

Will Obama run again in 2012?

I don’t know. That subject was never brought up again after 2008, at least not around me. If he does, I think it would have more to do with allowing him another year and a half of campaigning again. He just loves it so much. He really needs the crowds, the cheering, the support of the people.

Can he win in 2012?

Oh – absolutely. Who else campaigns as well as Barack Obama? Nobody. What politician is more loved and supported by the media? Nobody. I don’t see the Republicans offering up a candidate as powerful as Obama. I mean, Sarah Palin? Really? Obama would defeat her by a 20 point landslide! Romney? The Republicans will enjoy these midterm elections, but 2012 is Obama’s year if he chooses to run again. As a president, Obama has many flaws, but as a candidate, he is near flawless.

But would another four years of an Obama presidency be the best thing for America?

(Long pause) Now that is a much more interesting question right there, and a question I think more and more Democrat Party insiders are asking themselves these days, myself included. I am going to come right out and say it – No. Obama is not up to the job of being president. He simply doesn’t seem to care about the work involved. You want to know what? Obama is lazy. He really is. And it is getting worse and worse. Would another four years of Obama be the best thing for America ? No it would not. What this country needs is a president who is focused on the job more than on themselves. Obama is not that individual. I actually hope he doesn’t run again. Looking back, as much fun as the campaign in 2008 was, Hillary Clinton should have been the nominee. Hillary was ready to be president. Obama was not ready. He had never lost a campaign. Everything was handed to him. He doesn’t really understand the idea of work – real, hard, get your heart and soul into it work. And frankly, that is very disappointing to a whole lot of us . . .


.

RIDDLE ME THIS BATMAN

When is a photo-op not a photo-op? When the press is only informed "on condition of secrecy"


"The White House kept Mr. Obama's plans off his schedule, informing a small group of traveling reporters in advance on condition of secrecy."

"Mr. Obama was expected to observe a somber moment on the tarmac of the base without public comment." I don't think we've heard the last of this, however . . .

Make no mistake about it, Barack Obama is a shrewd political operator; every move he makes is calculated for the maximum political effect.

These past couple of weeks have seen the media on a renewed full-court-press to relive the heady days of 1968 - remember a little thing called the Tet Offensive? That's when we met the Viet Cong and the NVA on the battlefield and wiped the floor with them. 45,000 dead Communists later, Walter Cronkite announced to the world that America was losing the war. This maneuver is known as "Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory".

The truth is, we won Vietnam. We won it in 1968 right after Tet. Then we won it again a year later. Then we won it again during the Christmas bombings. The trouble is, we never consolidated our victories with an invasion of the North. We won and we won and we won until we got tired of winning, and then we packed up our bat and ball and went home. Millions of Viets died in the ensuing Communist bloodbath.

STORMBRINGER TRUISM: When you are in a war, the stupidest thing to do is anything but whatever it takes to win it.

True to script the media is at it again: this week I enjoyed the privilege of watching the sublime philosopher Chris Matthews in a discussion with America's greatest military thinker, the brilliant dopesmoker Woody Harrelson.

Woody Harrelson: "I think we should get out of Afghanistan."

Chris Matthews: "Yes I agree with you, I think we should get out."

Woody: "In fact, I don't know why we're even there in the first place. I think we should get out."

Chris: "Yes, it's like Vietnam, after 1968 it was lost. I think we should get out of Afghanistan."

It was sickening to watch this pair of geniuses make the same pronouncements that cost us Vietnam, and cost the lives of millions of Vietnamese. The only thing Afghanistan has in common with Vietnam is that they are both low intensity conflicts.

Afghanistan is nothing like Vietnam: A) the Viets never sneak attacked New York City, causing 3000+ civilian casualties and B) US / Australian / South Korean / South Vietnamese casualties were 4,954 killed; 15,917 wounded; 926 missing in January-February 1968 alone - we've had about that in eight years in Afghanistan.

And so we see the same old equation: ANY number of US casualties is unacceptable to the left. The writing is on the wall - the press is getting into body count math = game over for USA, we're throwing in the towel. No consideration for what this will mean to the people we leave behind, of course.

Right now my buddies in the Stan are reporting to me that the Taliban shot their wad during their Spring Offensive, that they are spent and done for; I am told that we are shooting them like fish in a barrel and that the raghead bodies are stacking up like cordwood. We don't hear a thing about that in the press. Instead, we have a photo op showing The One using dead American servicemen as props.

This is absolutely disgraceful. I predict B.O. will twist this solemn occasion for sober reflection as justification deny General McChrystal's request for more forces.

Then he will go play some more golf.

SECRET SERVICE HATED JIMMY CARTER

America must never forget those who hate us for what we are, those who spread ill-will and discontent about what we stand for.


According to writer Ronald Kessler, Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president. Ronald Kessler reveals this in his new book "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect", about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency’s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama.




Already an Amazon.com best-seller since its publication on Tuesday, Kessler's book features startling disclosures about the presidents and their families.

Agents told Kessler that Jimmy Carter treated them and others who served him with utter disdain.

"Inside the White House, Carter treated with contempt the little people who helped and protected him," and told agents not to look at him or speak to him — even to say hello — when he went to the Oval Office, Kessler disclosed.

"For three and a half years, agent John Piasecky was on Carter's detail — including seven months of driving him in the presidential limousine — and Carter never spoke to him, he says.

"At the same time, Carter tried to project an image of himself as man of the people by carrying his own luggage when traveling. But that was often for show. When he was a candidate in 1976, Carter would carry his own bags when the press was around but ask the Secret Service to carry them the rest of the time."

A politician staging a photo op - who'd ever imagine that?

On one occasion, disgruntled agents deliberately left Carter's luggage in the trunk of his car at an airport, and Carter "was without clothes for two days."

At his home in Plains, Ga., Carter once tried to attack and kill a small dog with a bow saw. Agents had befriended the stray dog, a terrier, and given it the code name Dolphin.

When the dog ate some food Carter's wife, Rosalynn, had put out for their Siamese cat, Carter "got the bow saw off a woodpile near the family room patio" and "tried to kill the dog," one agent who was there told Kessler.

Dolphin dodged the attack, but Carter insisted that agents remove the dog from Plains. The orphan dog was given to the press corps.

As president, Carter needed to have the "nuclear football" at hand to enable him to take action in case of a nuclear attack.

But the president — code-named Deacon — refused to allow a military aide with the nuclear football to stay in a trailer on his property in Plains. The aide had to stay in Americus, a 15-minute drive from Carter's home, a top military official confirmed to Kessler.

"Because of the agreed-upon protocols, in the event of a nuclear attack, Carter could not have launched a counterattack by calling the aide in Americus," Kessler writes. "By the time the military aide drove to Carter's home, the United States would have been within five minutes of being wiped out by nuclear-tipped missiles."

Carter was "moody and mistrustful" and sought to micromanage everything, agents told Kessler. He insisted that aides ask him for permission to use the White House tennis courts — even when he was traveling on Air Force One.

The Carter Administration - those wonderful people who brought us the Ayatollah Kohmeini!

Early in his presidency, Carter proclaimed that the White House would be "dry," and only wine, but no liquor, would be served at state dinners.

The word was passed to get rid of all the booze on Air Force One, at Camp David, and in the White House. But on the first Sunday the Carters were in the White House, they ordered up Bloody Marys before going to church.

Kessler discloses that Carter "would regularly make a show of going to the Oval Office at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. to call attention to how hard he was working for the American people."

In fact, "he would work for half an hour, then close the curtains and take a nap," Robert B. Sulliman Jr., who was on Carter's detail, told Kessler.
"His staff would tell the press he was working."

As the Carter administration drew to a close, Carter and his staff became more paranoid. They believed that people were stealing things and eavesdropping on his conversations in the Oval Office.

Before going on a fishing trip in Georgia one morning, Carter accused a Secret Service agent of stealing fried chicken stewards had prepared. In fact, White House aides Jody Powell and Hamilton Jordan had eaten the chicken.

The Carters never really understood the Secret Service's role, Kessler asserts.
He reveals that Carter told the Secret Service that Rosalynn objected to agents and uniformed officers being armed inside the White House. Rosalynn said guns made the Carters' daughter, Amy, "uncomfortable." Agents explained that in the event of an attack, they would be useless if they were not armed. The president relented.

After leaving the White House, Carter made a show that he was going to save the taxpayers' money by not keeping the Secret Service. But he soon brought agents back when he discovered that having federal agents along got him express service at airports and the like.

There is one single thing we can thank Jimmy Carter for - it was the Carter Administration that gave us the single greatest President in American history - Ronald W. Reagan.


Carter’s oddities continued after he left office, Kessler reports. Carter occasionally stayed in the townhouse the General Services Administration maintains for former presidents in Washington. Photos of former presidents adorn the walls of the townhouse.

GSA managers found that when Carter stayed at the townhouse, he would take down the photos of Republican presidents Ford and Nixon and put up a half-dozen large photos of himself.

Egomaniac.


"He didn't like them [Ford and Nixon] looking down at him," GSA manager Lucille Price told Kessler.

"We would find out he would put photos of himself up," and then "take the photos of himself back with him."

I read Kessler's books, and based on what I know from my exposure inside the intelligence community, they are legit and well written. I'm just spreading the word here on his latest . . . S.L.