(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.
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White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler will fall on her sword like a good soldier.
Miria, I am beginning to find plausible the idea that extreme hubris has made this man so incredibly sloppy that there aren’t enough swords for minions to fall on. It looks really bad right now, and we’re still much closer to the beginning than the end.
I think he’s just used to the Chicago way of doing things. Rush said the other day, give up the idea of impeachment, it won’t go anywhere. Do hammer the point that this is what you get with Democrats and big government – cronies being rewarded, enemies being punished, unequal treatment under the law.
Note to the IRS: I’ve already been audited.
I think it is safe to say that the majority of his supporters probably don’t even know that these things are happening. They just do not pay attention. It’s because of this that his approval rating hasn’t been negatively affected at all.
In fact, if you go to cnn.com right now there is nothing about any of this in their “headlines.” There is a nice piece about him going to his senior prom in 1979, though…
That’s classic bias by omission, and an insidious problem indeed. Keeping the ignorant that way was/is a significant part of Obama’s strategy.
And there’s still practically nothing on CNN about it. Oh, except that Lois Lerner has been placed on administrative leave. Paid administrative leave I’m sure. Poor woman.