Washington Post - Obama Skipped At Least Half of His Security Briefings

Washington Post - Why Is Obama Skipping More Than Half of His Security Briefings?

President Obama is touting his foreign policy experience on the campaign trail, but startling new statistics suggest that national security has not necessarily been the personal priority the president makes it out to be. It turns out that more than half the time, the commander in chief does not attend his daily intelligence meeting.

The Government Accountability Institute, a new conservative investigative research organization, examined President Obama’s schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) — the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent — falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.

Don't anyone tell me that he's too busy with more important things to do. Considering how often he goes golfing AND that his schedule has been empty more than a few times ... (the talking heads on TV showed his empty 'daily schedules' ) .... :shk: Being POTUS is a 24 hour a day job. National Security is part of the oath of office ... it's a top priority. And yet, this guy can't even attend half of the meetings? LAZY .. or inept .. or he just doesn't care ...

reply to post by FlyersFan


Because he has no original thoughts. He totally depends on his inner circle to think for him. He's a great pitch man, that's it. He's the bullet points president. Never getting to the meat of the matter, just the bullet points handed off to him, in digestible sound bites, for fund raising.;

Des

Originally posted by Destinyone
Because he has no original thoughts.

That could very well be. His severe inexperience in this area could show through at the meetings.
.... or it could be because he's too busy out playing golf.
.... or it could be because he doesn't agree with having a POTUS who is 'up' on national security issues.

I wonder if we check the records of Other presidents.
Is this just another case of conservatives being massive
Hypocrites???

Like Accusing Obama of things all presidents do

Golf
Days off
Spending
Appointing czars
Etc

All these things, when examined show that Obama
Is not different.

The thing that is different is that conservatives don't
Care to examine or criticize other conservatives.

It is clear to see

Originally posted by FlyersFan

.... or it could be because he doesn't agree with having a POTUS who is 'up' on national security issues.

536 national security meetings is a lot of meetings.

That is pretty up if you ask me

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by Destinyone
Because he has no original thoughts.

That could very well be. His severe inexperience in this area could show through at the meetings.
.... or it could be because he's too busy out playing golf.
.... or it could be because he doesn't agree with having a POTUS who is 'up' on national security issues.

I think you hit the nail on the head. His severe inexperience. His ego would no way in hell, allow him to be shown to not be an expert at these meetings, so not attending is his way of protecting, yes, hiding his lack of experience necessary to be Commander and Chief of the United States of America. It may all boil down to his insecurities, overridng national security.

Des

The President (and most high level officials) get a read a book and tends to have meetings when he has questions. At least that is the way it used to work. I have no idea why Bush would have them everyday unless he just had lots of questions or prefered chatting. Now when an issue comes up of course they deal with it right then but, the day to day stuff I do not why at that level they would need to meet. Of course every President is different, I recall briefs I helped create for Bush Sr. were more straight up less formal with few graphics etc. but, under Clinton more graphics were the order of the day. Of course that could have just been the preference of someone like the Chief of Staff. The point of all this being everybody has thier own way of getting info. Some prefer to read it, some like a sit down chat and others prefer a more formal presentation. I see this as just as a non issue and just as silly as all the claims the Bush Jr. was alway off golfing or at his ranch.

I find it real hard to believe that Obama doesn't get the intel he needs. So I read the article and found some interesting stuff.

He says that the president reads his PDB every day, and he disagreed with the suggestion that there is any difference whatsoever between simply reading the briefing book and having an interactive discussion of its contents with top national security and intelligence officials where the president can probe assumptions and ask questions. “I actually don’t agree at all,” Vietor told me in an e-mail, “The president gets the information he needs from the intelligence community each day.”

I think it's safe to say that the Washington Post probably doesn't have any real information on how Obama runs his ship and it is apparent from the assumptions they had to make in this article.

This is a hit piece.

reply to post by sheepslayer247

This is a hit piece.

Of course it is and i'm sure the OP knows who Thiessen is and he purposely left out the part, you just quoted.

The article also mentions, how Bush almost never skipped a meeting, but i think we all know what happend under his watch.
Obama seems to do just fine National Security- wise, but to say that, would be probably as stupid as what Thiessen had to say.



..,

Originally posted by MrSpad
I have no idea why Bush would have them everyday unless he just had lots of questions or prefered chatting.

Really? You have no idea why a POTUS would have to have a security meeting each day? With the world situation the way it is .. and how fluid the situation is between Iran and Israel ... and the terrorist threat not only to us but around the world ... etc etc .... you really don't get why a POTUS, The Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces .. who has his finger sitting on a nuclear trigger ... would have to have a lot of security briefings? You really don't see why?

reply to post by sheepslayer247

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
This is a hit piece.

Exactly. The right is trying to downplay Obama's role in eliminating Bin Laden. Next thing you know, they will be saying that Obama Caused 9/11 by Ignoring Daily Briefings!

And that is why George “el Macho” Boosh Kept Us Safe (Never Forget), Barack Obama didn’t, and Osama Bin Laden is still alive and plotting, because Barack Obama couldn’t be bothered to do his homework.

Originally posted by thepresident
536 national security meetings is a lot of meetings.
That is pretty up if you ask me

Attending 1/3 of the National Security meetings is not 'attending a lot of meetings'.
It's called MISSING a lot of meetings. That's not 'up' at all.

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
This is a hit piece.

The FACT is that he attending 1/3 of the National Security meetings.
That's not a 'hit piece'. That's just stating a fact.
And the other facts are that he goes golfing a hell of a lot and even
has days when there is absolutely NOTHING on his schedule. NOTHING.

Facts can't be a 'hit piece'. They are just facts.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
The right is trying to downplay Obama's role in eliminating Bin Laden.

The right doesn't have to try to downplay Obama's role ... the fact is that
Obama's role was small .. of his own doing.
Obama dragged his feet. The killing got done DISPITE Obama .. not because of him.

ATS Thread - Top General: Obama Knew of UBLs Hideout Since Summer of 2010 but Refused to Act

UK Daily Mail - Obama cancelled missions kill bin Laden THREE TIMES getting cold feet Hillary-Clinton stepped In

BACK ON SUBJECT ... the fella attended 1/3 of his security meetings even though he had a wide open schedule many days. Thats not a 'hit piece'. That's a fact.

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by thepresident
536 national security meetings is a lot of meetings.
That is pretty up if you ask me

Attending 1/3 of the National Security meetings is not 'attending a lot of meetings'.
It's called MISSING a lot of meetings. That's not 'up' at all.

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
This is a hit piece.

The FACT is that he attending 1/3 of the National Security meetings.
That's not a 'hit piece'. That's just stating a fact.
And the other facts are that he goes golfing a hell of a lot and even
has days when there is absolutely NOTHING on his schedule. NOTHING.

Facts can't be a 'hit piece'. They are just facts.

Executives are not there to master policy, they are there to
Coordinate an execute the policy.

If a CEO of a company is not at all sales meetings, does
That mean he is inept or not concerned about sales???

Therein is the answer

reply to post by FlyersFan

Originally posted by FlyersFan
the fella attended 1/3 of his security meetings even though he had a wide open schedule many days. Thats not a 'hit piece'. That's a fact.

So what? He read them all. And he is the most informed man on the planet. What is your point? That he was uninformed? That he's lazy? That he should have done it like Dubya? That he was picking his nose? WHAT?

reply to post by FlyersFan


Well I think you have to be careful here.

It looks as though Obama didn't go to many of these meetings, but he did receive the information he needed and I'm sure he could pick up the phone and contact whomever he needed to take action.

Also, we have not had any attacks on us since Obama took office.

Bush went to more meetings than Obama, did not pay attention to memos given to him in those meetings and we got 9/11!

So what you are doing here is making the case that these meetings are pointless and the president has to be able to make decisions from the oval office or the golf course.

I'd rather Obama not go to a formal meeting and our country be safe, than for him to go to every one and still miss information.

Thats not a 'hit piece'. That's a fact.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


No we all know that it was Clinton who blew that shot What is so funny that is in the digital age all sorts of information comes to light on a constant basis. The Intelligence agencies sift through and give the potus the needed info they have and if the president is skipping the meetings the question is who is handling the info for him? Maybe if he attended the briefs we would not have gotten involved w/Libya's revolution.

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
The right is trying to downplay Obama's role in eliminating Bin Laden.

The right doesn't have to try to downplay Obama's role ... the fact is that
Obama's role was small .. of his own doing.
Obama dragged his feet. The killing got done DISPITE Obama .. not because of him.

ATS Thread - Top General: Obama Knew of UBLs Hideout Since Summer of 2010 but Refused to Act

UK Daily Mail - Obama cancelled missions kill bin Laden THREE TIMES getting cold feet Hillary-Clinton stepped In

BACK ON SUBJECT ... the fella attended 1/3 of his security meetings even though he had a wide open schedule many days. Thats not a 'hit piece'. That's a fact.

Fact remains, Obama had to make the final call, rsk international incident
And the lives of ST6.

As it turns out, it got done and he executed the entire plan
Very well.

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by thepresident
536 national security meetings is a lot of meetings.
That is pretty up if you ask me

Attending 1/3 of the National Security meetings is not 'attending a lot of meetings'.
It's called MISSING a lot of meetings. That's not 'up' at all.

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
This is a hit piece.

The FACT is that he attending 1/3 of the National Security meetings.
That's not a 'hit piece'. That's just stating a fact.
And the other facts are that he goes golfing a hell of a lot and even
has days when there is absolutely NOTHING on his schedule. NOTHING.

Facts can't be a 'hit piece'. They are just facts.

let's see...bush went to every meeting...he didn't get osama, and he didn't prevent 9/11
obama went to a little under half the meetings, and he got osama, and helped the rebels take out kadayfi

seems like obama doesn't need to go to every meeting to handle whats going on in the world

so...in other words, don't results count more than attendance??? to republicans...NO!!!!!
or...maybe bush needed to have everything explained to him in person, and obama was able to understand what was written, without explanation.

reply to post by hangedman13

No we all know that it was Clinton who blew that shot

Not trying to interrupt, but that's not exactly true.

Clinton's Sec. of Def, a Republican, said in his own book that Clinton worked very hard to find Bin Laden and try to coordinate action against him, but wasn't able to do so because the same Republicans that criticize Clinton now are the same people that asked Clinton not to get OBL in the 90's!