At the Washington Post yesterday, Marc Thiessen reported on a study by the Government Accountability Institute that found President Obama has attended less than half of his daily intelligence briefings since taking office, based on his public schedule. This is a sharp contrast to President Bush, who reportedly rarely missed an intelligence briefing.
According to the 2011 and 2012 digests of Obama’s public schedule from the U.S. Government Printing Office, he attended 198 of his daily intelligence briefings between April 14, 2011 (the day he hosted the first fundraiser of his reelection campaign) and August 24, 2012 (the last day included in the latest GPO digest). By August 14, 2012, Obama had already reached 203 fundraising events since launching his reelection campaign, slightly more than the number of intelligence briefings he had attended during that time period.
Republicans have been blasting Obama for routinely skipping the meetings. Vice President Cheney sharply criticized the president in a statement to the Daily Caller’s Jamie Weinstein last night:
“If President Obama were participating in his intelligence briefings on a regular basis then perhaps he would understand why people are so offended at his efforts to take sole credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden,” Cheney told The Daily Caller in an email through a spokeswoman.
“Those who deserve the credit are the men and women in our military and intelligence communities who worked for many years to track him down. They are the ones who deserve the thanks of a grateful nation.”
White House officials defended Obama’s attendance record to Politico yesterday, with Jay Carney dismissing the allegations as “hilarious.”
“[Obama] receives and reads his [Presidential Daily Brief] every day, and most days when he’s at the White House receives a briefing in person,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Politico in an email. “When necessary he probes the arguments, requests more information or seeks alternate analysis. Sometimes that’s via a written assessment and other times it’s in person.”
Government Accountability Institute that found President Obama has attended less than half of his daily intelligence briefings since taking office___ n n_What did he miss?
> Obama has attended less than half of his daily intelligence briefings since taking office, n> based on his public schedule. This is a sharp contrast to President Bush, who reportedly n> rarely missed an intelligence briefing. n n n…and it certainly made a huge difference on September 11 2001, don't you think? n nSeriously, do thoroughly discredited Bush administration hacks really want to have this debate? n n
At least Obama takes intel reports seriously, as opposed to Bush, who greeted the report, "Bin Laden set to strike in US" with the comment to the briefer, "OK, you've covered your ass." n nAnd btw, I love the ghettoization of dissent practiced by Commentary. Those whose opinions don't mesh with the majority of (right-wing) readers are marked in red. No other online publication that I know carries such a designation over from response to response. Now where have we seen such labeling? Hmmm…..
HillelA, come up with a new catchphrase. I see you using “ghettoization of dissent” all over the lot, but it is meaningless. Here are your dissenting comments, living alongside other comments, free to be read and agreed or disagreed with. Your unsubtle attempt to paint Commentary as a gathering place of anti-semites, eager to slap on yellow stars and push dissenters into ghettos is tiresome and wrong. Go find some real danger to Jews to rail against.
Gotta wonder if he had attended a few more briefings, he would have had a better idea what the so-called "Arab Spring" really was about. Gotta wonder if we would have two less dead ambassadors as well…