What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility —
a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to
ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not
grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge
that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of
our character than giving our all to a difficult
task.
-- President Barack
Obama
Inaugural
Address
January 20, 2009
Oh I think that, you know, as president I bear
responsibility for everything — to some degree.
— President Obama
Interview with Steve Kroft of 60
Minutes
September 23, 2012
I take responsibility. I’m in charge of the State
Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The
president and the vice president wouldn’t be knowledgeable about
specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re
the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs
and make a considered decision.
— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Interview
with CNN while in Lima, Peru
October 15, 2012
In the 1,374 days Barack Obama has held the office of President
of the United States it is clear that he has not gladly seized his
duties let alone grudgingly accepted them. In that time, Obama has
instead provided a litany of excuses as to why he has not succeeded
in bringing about hope and change. He has at various points blamed
ATMs, the Arab Spring, and the Japanese tsunami for his
shortcomings.
Obama, of course, reserved most of the blame for his
predecessor, George W. Bush. To this day, Obama speaks of the mess
he inherited from Bush while ignoring the mess of his own making.
Should Mitt Romney be elected he will inherit an even bigger mess.
But you won’t see Romney spending the next four years blaming Obama
for it.
OK, so Obama bears responsibility for everything — to some
degree. Well, now we know it means that when President Obama gets
that 3 a.m. call, it is forwarded to Secretary Clinton. Now there
is no question that Hillary bears some responsibility for what
happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. Casting blame on a
cheaply made Internet video rather than calling it a well-planned
terrorist attack carried out on the 11th anniversary of the attacks
of September 11, 2001 by acolytes of al Qaeda is just plain
inexcusable. Indeed, there is an argument that she ought to resign
her office as has been suggested
by our own Ben Stein (among
others).
But let us never forget that Secretary Clinton serves at the
pleasure of President Obama. If Hillary is telling the world that
neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden are knowledgeable
about “specific decisions that are made by security professionals”
surely that doesn’t inspire confidence.
Now I understand that President Obama is
too busy to attend his security briefings and has more pressing
matters to attend such as the
civil war betweens divas Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj.
No doubt he will appoint Stevie Wonder as a special envoy if they
can’t sort it out. As for Vice President Biden, his lack of
knowledge on security matters didn’t stop him during his debate
with Paul Ryan last week from telling the world that there were no
requests for additional security in Benghazi.
But given that President Obama “led from behind” to remove
Colonel Qaddafi from power, I would like to think that he would be
on top of the security situation in a country where there is
precious little of it and partially of his own making. Yet that
would require Obama to be diligent, dedicated, and to possess a
sense of duty to something other than his own prestige. If the
mission to kill Osama bin Laden had ended in failure, does anyone
honestly think that President Obama would have accepted full
responsibility? We probably would have been treated to the sight of
then-CIA director Leon Panetta going on TV and telling the world,
“I take responsibility for the failure to kill Osama bin Laden. I
take full responsibility for the loss of Navy SEAL Team Six.”
So long as President Obama remains in office, the era of
responsibility will never begin.
