-
The SPLC: Big Bucks, the FRC, and Jimmy Carter
May 7, 2013 | 6 comments
-
Mark Levin Talks to the NRA
May 7, 2013 | 0 comments
-
POLITICO: RUSH LIMBAUGH MAY PART WITH CUMULUS
May 5, 2013 | 13 comments
-
The Problematic Frank Luntz’s Stockholm Syndrome
April 25, 2013 | 11 comments
-
Dead Terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev Channeled Islamic Videos
April 19, 2013 | 67 comments
The Spectacle Blog
“The President is among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”
So says White House spokesman Tommy Vietor when it was revealed President Obama has been skipping his daily intelligence briefing.
Reported Breitbart:
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.
And as we write… the Middle East is in turmoil, with the Obama administration saying they just don’t understand why. Said Hillary Clinton:
I asked myself — how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate in a city we helped save from destruction?
As Rush Limbaugh today quoted author Michael Lewis on the Charlie Rose show from 2008, Obama “thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.”
Hmmmmm.
Just today over there in our column on some of the books that would be helpful in understanding the 2012 campaign we wrote this:
Elitism
• Outnumbered: Chronicles of a Manhattan Conservative by Jedediah Bilah. This smart, funny but deadly serious book pinpoints with precision the almost laughable elitism that has infected liberalism and the Democrats. The “I’m smarter than thou” thinking that is so hilariously misplaced it would be worthy of a sitcom were it not so serious in its impact on the country. Ms. Bila tells her own personal tale of survival amidst this kind of thinking in the heart of liberal Manhattan. But make no mistake — this thinking is everywhere in the liberal world. After all — who needs God in a platform if one is smarter than God?
Now.
What exactly is it that the White House spokesman has just said?
The spokesman said: “The President is among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet….”
So therefore he doesn’t need to attend all those intel briefings.
Which is to say, the White House itself is at this very moment illustrating precisely Jedediah Bila’s point. The only difference here is that this “I’m smarter than you” argument is now coming not from Ms. Bila’s interactions with snobby Manhattanites — but from the President of the United States!
And the results?
Four dead Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya. And right this minute mobs are swarming the streets of Cairo. Cairo. Where “the most sophisticated” President gave that famous speech in 2009 that he was so certain would somehow make Islamic radicals turn into not-Islamic-radicals. Instead? The Muslim Brotherhood is now running the country. Something that Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Andrew McCarthy and others have spent time aplenty warning about.
The other week we asked the question about the influence of Clinton aide Huma Abedin on State Department policy.
We quoted a letter to the Inspector General of the State Department from Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann that said:
For example, according to “The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within,” a product of the Center for Security Policy (MuslimBrotherhoodinAmerica.com), the Department’s Deputy Chief of staff, Huma Abedin, has three family members — her late father, her mother and her brother — connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations. Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy-making.
Now… today… the United States is in a crisis precisely because of a series of blunders in both Egypt and Libya. Is any of this related to any private policy advice Huma Abedin gave her Secretary of State boss? We don’t know.
But we do know this.
With her pointed and perceptive book on the smug elitism that runs rampant in the liberal world view, Jedediah Bila has put her finger on exactly the attitude that is now causing such terrible consequences in the Middle East.
The Middle East teeters on the brink.
But don’t worry. Huma is helping Hillary, although Hillary doesn’t understand what’s happening.
And the President, you see, is the smartest man in the room.
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/13/huma-abedin-elitism-and-those
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- The Great Train Robbery
- Current Wisdom
- Ailes: A Voice for the Silent Majority
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
C. Vernon Crisler | 9.13.12 @ 4:09PM
Come on Jeffrey. Using innuendo to criticize a relatively private citizen like Huma Abedin is morally questionable. What actual evidence do you guys have that she's the gray eminence behind Hillary? I mean real evidence, not "connections."
RCV| 9.13.12 @ 4:16PM
Excellent question, Vern.
Jeff| 9.13.12 @ 5:15PM
C. Vernon...
Huma Abedin is not a private citizen. She is the deputy chief of staff to the US Secretary of State and a famously close advisor. As Andy McCarthy has pointed out, when he was a government prosecutor he would never have been allowed to pursue a case that involved a relative for the obvious reason - a conflict of interest. Ms. Abedin - for fact - has close family relatives who are or have been members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet there she sits advising the Secretary of State. What is being said? How does this influence policy? These are obvious questions....particularly when all this trust placed in the Muslim Brotherhood is going south - fast.
mike 3/505| 9.13.12 @ 5:16PM
Mrs Weiner wouldn't ordinarily qualify for a security clearance given her familial associations.
83champ| 9.14.12 @ 9:33AM
Question: How come Huma Abedin married outside her religion (Anthony Weiner, no less) in a nondenominational ceremony (Bill Clinton preformed the ceremony) and not receive public death threats from an outraged Islamic somewhere?
TinaB| 9.13.12 @ 4:25PM
Flatter each other much, boys?
Paul McGrath| 9.13.12 @ 4:43PM
Hillary is quoted in the S. F. Chronicle today in the Debra Saunders column as stating: "How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?"
Kinda funny. I have the same question. In fact, the person to whom I would ask my question might be, guess who, the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton!
So if she doesn't know, then, well who in the hell is running this country? What a bunch of incompetents.
C. Vernon Crisler | 9.13.12 @ 5:06PM
I'd say that Hillary doesn't really understand the nature of Islam if she can ask that question.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 9.13.12 @ 5:05PM
Perhaps, Mr. Lord, you didn’t understand what Mr. Vietor meant. I seem to recall at the time that he took office, among the fawning coverage was an article about how infatuated he was with his Blackberry device, and how NSA was working on providing him with an encrypted one so he could continue his habits without exposing state secrets to the level of security that British tabloid reporters could easily hack.
Perhaps what was meant by sophisticated consumer is he gets a text on his Blackberry from whoever attended the meeting in his stead with the important parts.
Clearly, after his ineptitude demonstrated with the Smartphone recently, he can’t be getting it that way.
Thom| 9.13.12 @ 6:09PM
Gen. Tommy Franks is fond of this tatement, “the enemy gets a vote” which is just a pragmatic reality check reminder to be mindful of what you can and cannot control. In the world of competent military field craft you try to control as many variables as possible so that your enemy has as few votes as possible….
In the world of diplomatic double-speak, this phrase is often operative, “A.S.S.U.Me”. Narcissistic, arrogant, condescending asshole control-freaks often live and die figuratively based on that phrase but their underlings often die for real due to their stellar tunnel vision and blindness on matters that termites have a better view of.
We aren’t far from a serious load of “shit” hitting the fan in that part of the world and the best the smartest dumbass SoS in the world can contribute to that which she advocated we get hip deep in is that she doesn’t understand how this could happen? News flash to the clueless administration, our enemies vote too.
Occam's Tool| 9.13.12 @ 6:30PM
Ms. Bilah is also a columnist for AMAC's Magazine, the Conservative counter to the AARP's magazine, as AMAC is the Conservative Counter to AARP.
By the way, she's also gorgeous!
Thom| 9.13.12 @ 7:20PM
OC, do you think there are any practical applications of your name sake’s logic to the problems in the ME?
83champ| 9.14.12 @ 9:35AM
I've seen her on RedEye. She's very good. Real pleasant demeanor
Minuteman78| 9.14.12 @ 9:48AM
Totally agree. Smoking hot legs.
chuck| 9.13.12 @ 8:41PM
So Hildebeast can't figure it out? What the hell is she doing being our Sec. of State? What the hell are her qualifications? Getting knocked up by Bill? Hell Gennifer Flowers could do a better job, she's just as qualified!
Special thanks to the idiots in New York who elected her a Senator, instead of killing her political future by sending her packing. Y'all are at least partially responsible for the rape and murder of our Ambassador. Yes, those sick Muzzie faggots raped the man before they murdered him.
spike59| 9.14.12 @ 5:42AM
The only difference here is that this "I'm smarter than you" argument is now coming not from Ms. Bila's interactions with snobby Manhattanites -- but from the President of the United States!
============================
NOW coming from the POTUS????? when has he NOT considered himself the smartest man in the room/nation/continent/hemisphere/world/solar system/galaxy/universe????