On a 60 minutes episode in 2012 President Obama said “Oh I think that, you know, as president I bear responsibility for everything--to some degree.” Fast forward to this year, On the week of the Benghazi hearings reports came out that the IRS since 2010 has been auditing individual and non profit organizations who are conservative in their political affiliation, and reports came out that the Justice Department had wiretapped more than twenty lines at the Associated Press. That would be a big blow to the credibility of any administration. The issue for Obama though is his lack of knowledge.
In each of the cases above the response has been the same. He wasn't briefed on any of these issues, and found out about them on the evening news. The problem? There are sources that will confirm that there were people in the White House that knew about the IRS scandal since 2012, and that there were people in the White House that knew about the Justice Department looking into the Associated Press, but they did not find these things important enough to get the President involved in these cases. In fact, the President had to find out about them just like every other American.
Many people have been comparing these scandals to Watergate which happened forty years ago, and Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason asked how Obama felt about “being compared to President Nixon on this.” The press secretary Jay Carney responded, “People who make those kinds of comparisons need to check their history.” To which Carney has a point. Richard Nixon was in control. Evidence to that point couldn't be anymore clear. That is why he resigned before he could be impeached. Obama on the other hand has blamed the other agencies, and on multiple occasions called them "independent." The Associated Press’s Jim Kuhnhenn pointed out that in all the controversies of the moment — the Benghazi “talking points,” the IRS targeting and the journalists’ phone records He stated “you have placed the burden of responsibility someplace else. . . . But it is the president’s administration."
Sadly, he is a president of ignorance. He believes he cannot be touched. This is a president that says "I bear responsibility for everything--to some degree" Unfortunately to some degree means very little. He won't own up to the mistakes of his administration, he will pass them off. This leads me to another Democratic President Harry S. Truman on his desk was a sign. It stated, "The BUCK STOPS here!" In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman referred to this concept, "The President, whoever he is, has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him." Mr. President, all I ask is for you to get in front of the camera, look at the American people and say, "I'm sorry, these things shouldn't of happened," and ultimately, "the buck stops here."
Agreed!
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