This president has some gall. I just caught the last half of his press conference. This is a man who couldn’t play it straight even if you gave him a pencil and a ruler.

Obama has three typical gambits. First, he denies responsibility for anything bad. Second, he blames his adversaries for his own failures or inaction. Third, he claims to be above the fray. 

All three poses are flagrantly dishonest.

Consider, as per 1) White House tour cuts? Air traffic delays? Oh, his hands are tied. He warned us against that mean old sequester, dontcha know. (Never mind that in both cases, as the Wall Street Journal has showed, his administration already enjoyed discretion/flexibility. And never mind that he OPPOSED bills to give him more flexibility.)

As per 2) He has promised to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for five years. (It’s a really really wrongheaded promise, by the way.) But, unless I missed something, he has neither A) put forth legislation to close Gitmo or B) ever promulgated an actual plan for doing so. Yet here he is, still promising to close Gitmo, as if he hasn’t been president for the past 51 months.

As per 3) Oh, it’s just so awful that Congress won’t act on X, Y, or Z. Never mind that whenever Congress does seem to get close to an agreement, he is the one who says or does something to blow it up, or move the goalposts, or throw up roadblocks.

When combined with his overweening vanity, Obama’s falsehoods and evasions of responsibility are virtually insufferable. Ugh.