Politics | BoWilliams.com

Mr. President, the door is warm—and is it getting smoky in here?

Annoyances, Current Events, History, Language, Liberty, Politics 7 Responses »

May 222013

(You know, you always feel the door before you open it. I think the political fire isn’t very far away, Mr. President.)

OK, ready? Here goes:

The President’s lawyer learned of the IRS targeting of conservative groups in April.
The President’s chief of staff learned of the IRS targeting of conservative groups in April.
The President himself learned of the IRS targeting of conservative groups in the news on May 10.

That’s the story right now from the White House. Really.

I think right now it is still marginally possible for Barack Obama’s defenders to go with the hey-what’s-the-big-deal approach. Manufactured scandal, Republicans on a witch hunt, blah blah blah. Outliers are hurling charges of racism here and there. There’s no reason to think the sociopolitical environment has suddenly become hostile to that particular brand of nonsense, so those accusations may increase a bit too.

Anything but, you know, the obvious.

I suspect we are not far from something that incontrovertibly implicates President Obama. The truly mindless sycophants—and they are numerically significant—will continue their standard, hand-waving dismissals as if nothing has happened. For everyone else, the time-honored tu quoque will become the primary defensive response.

One thing of which I am absolutely convinced: no matter what emerges—no matter what—Barack Obama will never be anything but defiant and dismissive. There is no genuine grace or decorum in him. There is only Chicago thug. There is only “what are you gonna do about it? Huh?”

I think that even if it gets genuinely bad, politically speaking, for him, he can’t even fake remorse. It’s not there to summon.

It will surprise few to read that I am not an especially big fan of our esteemed president. He is politically bleeding right now, which is really a first in his entire time in office. I hope it gets much worse, and I think it at least as likely that it will as it won’t. Whatever happens, I’m thankful that his ability to do any more damage is diminished, and as a student of political communication, I’m looking forward to watching him.

Obama administration knew of IRS targeting conservative groups in June 2012

Annoyances, Current Events, Liberty, Politics 2 Responses »

May 172013

Barack Obama’s presidency might not survive the IRS scandal.

That seemed a long-shot at the start of the week, but there were a couple of things that gave me hope that was a possibility. First, there is something subtle but unmistakably different in Obama’s conduct. He’ll “get to the bottom of it,” and he’s “outraged.”

But he’s not outraged. He very much has a “going through the motions” look about him. I found this notable because he’s been remarkably consistent. He’s only got a couple of demeanors, and the one he should logically have—the assertive, vaguely dismissive certainty—is absent. I speculate that it’s because he’s not sure he won’t get splattered, and that’s new territory for him.

So he’s a little more tentative, which really sticks out on him. There’s some loose end, somewhere—perhaps a bit of sloppiness enabled by hubris—that implicates him, and he hasn’t figured a way out of it.

Now when I say there might be a smoking gun, I’m not saying an email from Barack Obama, subject: Here is How We’re Going To Take Down the Right-Wingers Using the IRS, with a ten-point plan inside. I think it is likely to instead be that he learned of the effort and, recognizing it as advantageous, didn’t say anything. That’s not directing the effort, but it’s not very much above it ethically or morally, either.

How long might that time have been? Well, maybe about five months. This reporting this evening—in The New York Times, of all places—solidly indicates that knowledge of the IRS targeting was present in the White House in June 2012.

What’s the trail? How far to Barack Obama? Well, that’s the big question, isn’t it?

Expect a frenzied weekend, folks.

IRS scandal metastasizes; Carney sticks with “if proven true”

Annoyances, Current Events, History, Language, Liberty, Politics 4 Responses »

May 142013

It’s amazing how much more I’m enjoying following the news now that the Obama administration is under sustained political attack. (Poor Barry, though. He must feel so betrayed. Et tu, CNN?) As quickly as I’d start thinking about a post today, more major developments would come. Benghazi is only getting worse, but the IRS scandal is [...]

Why does an attack need “talking points” anyway?

Annoyances, Current Events, Politics 1 Response »

May 122013

Has anyone asked that about Benghazi? Wouldn’t you think that, when communicating something of this nature to the American people, the government would simply say what happened? The only things I’d think that would need to be omitted would be any details that could jeopardize investigation, or any names of any casualties whose families had [...]

Cracks in Obama’s facade, finally?

Annoyances, Current Events, Liberty, Mobile Blogging, Politics 4 Responses »

May 102013

It is now clear there was an active and sustained campaign of dishonesty surrounding the events of September 11, 2012 in Benghazi. We have also learned today that the IRS actively targeted conservative political groups, asking many intrusive and unconstitutional questions to boot. Will our esteemed president finally be held accountable for something?

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