Give Us Liberty: And can we add to INCOMEPTENCE...CRIMINAL?

From REAL CLEAR POLITCS
August 28, 2009

Obama's Carrousel of Incompetence

WASHINGTON -- According to the Gallup Poll, the Prophet Obama's job approval is now at its lowest since his coronation. It began at 70%. Now it is at 51%. Equally glum, his disapproval rating has climbed from 11% to 42%. So what about his golf game up there at Martha's Vineyard? From all I have been able to ascertain it is mediocre. In other words, Mr. Obama, you are no Dan Quayle. Vice President Quayle was a really superb golfer. Moreover, he ran a competent staff. Naturally it was smaller than Mr. Obama's, but it was competently run.

My belief, based on reports in the news and from my private network of seasoned agents and provocateurs, is that this White House is a carrousel of incompetence. How else do we explain the ravening push on all fronts, healthcare, the environment, fiscal reform, intelligence reform, and a foreign policy of humility and apology? Unsurprisingly, on every front the President is in trouble. Remember chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's, callous enjoiner, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste"? This White House is a serious crisis.

According to sources with whom I confer, the Obama White House is the most tightly controlled White House in years, with the President, Emanuel, and David Axelrod micromanaging practically everything. They compose what is called "the Politburo," and the news story waiting to be written is that their control is as stultifying as was Jimmy Carter's control of his White House. Stupendous failure is in the cards.

The Politburo follows no organizational flow charts. A source deeply rooted in official Washington tells me that when the President and his fellows want information from the National Security Council they may go to its head, General James L. Jones, or they may not. They may just call in one or two of his subordinates. If they do this with Jones they probably do it with other government heads. That cannot be good for morale, to say nothing of orderly decision making. Slowly some news stories are appearing that convey the harum-scarum state of things in the Obama government. Burnout afflicts staffers. The President has fewer than half his appointments in place to advance his historically unprecedented agenda. Mr. Emanuel, your crisis is shaping up nicely.

Some months back Sidney Blumenthal, then a loyal Democrat expecting an appointment over at the State Department where he would serve with his idol Hillary Clinton, inadvertently told a reporter that the Chicagoans coming in with Mr. Obama were even greener than the Arkansans who came in with the Clintons. By "greener" he was not referring to their environmental bona fides. He was referring to their governmental experience. They were provincials, though coming from a large and sophisticated city such as Chicago they were much less aware of what they did not know than were the Arkansans. Remember Blumenthal is from Chicago, and he was very close to the Clintons. His revelation is well grounded.

Blumenthal did not get the appointment the Clintons wanted for him. That brings me to still more evidence of the Politburo's incompetence, to wit: bringing a Clinton into the cabinet. Last year Mr. Obama beat Hillary Clinton in an acrimonious competition for the nomination. She was beaten and out of the limelight. Her husband was discredited as a campaigner and revealed as a cad. The Clintons should have been history. But the geniuses in what we now call the Politburo brought Hillary back to center stage and installed her at State. Then they attempted to hem her in by appointing special envoys and ambassadors, nearly 20 composing what the Washington Times reports is "a confusing patchwork of policy fiefdoms inside the administration that lacks clearly defined lines of command and has the potential for miscommunication on a grand scale." So they brought to the State Department the kind of confusion they brought to the White House, and they did it at a time when foreign policy has to contend with international terror, nuclear proliferation, two wars, and a dollar in decline. Moreover they have antagonized the Clintons.

During the 1990s such incompetence was not particularly dangerous. The economy was sound. The Cold War was over. We could sit back and enjoy the show as Bill and Newt entertained us. It was, as a gifted phrasemaker put it, The End of History. Now, history has begun again. Nuclear arms could fall into the hands of the kind of barbarians that attacked New York and Washington on 9/11. Other nations are prospering with modern conceptions of economic growth, while here at home the economy is weak and overseen by reactionaries with a 1930s grasp of governance and economics. Over at the White House we see three amateurs and a carrousel of incompetence.