Tough Guy President Who Has Previously Bragged of Drawing Up His Kill Lists By Hand Now Says He Had Nothing to Do With Strike that Killed American Hostage

Sometimes Captain Kickass turns into President Urkel, Jonah Goldberg writes.

Today, both the Pentagon and the White House (in the form of Josh Earnest) went out of their way to make sure everyone knows Obama didn’t personally or specifically sign off on the drone attacks that tragically killed two hostages, including an American. This is curious. First of all, he's still responsible, as he himself said in his press conference. He set up and approved a system that lets these attacks happen. There’s something cowardly about honorably taking "full responsibility" in public, and then having your flacks go out and stage whisper "It really wasn't him."

...

[A plausible] explanation might have to do with his vanity. I can't help but think the implication we’re supposed to take away is that if Obama-The-Righteous had been paying attention, mistakes like this would not have been made. The military bureaucracy has failed Obama, who famously reads Marcus Aurelius as he composes his kill lists. At least he avoided saying that he found out about these attacks by reading about them in the paper, but the upshot is the same. The president doesn't make mistakes, others make mistakes implementing his will.

posted by Ace at 03:33 PM

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