What else does the President not know about?

October 28th, 2013

I continue to be astounded by how many BIG issues the President has no knowledge about. Remember he didn’t know that the NSA was monitoring communications of Associated Press reporters? He also didn’t know (until recently) that foreign heads of state were being wiretapped. To say nothing of how he didn’t know about the foreseeable problems with HealthCare.gov.

What else does the President not know about? And why doesn’t he know about such big things?

I can think of two possibilities. One, he is totally apathetic and doesn’t care. The Times offered this scary account of the President’s detached position on Syria:

Even as the debate about arming the rebels took on a new urgency, Mr. Obama rarely voiced strong opinions during senior staff meetings. But current and former officials said his body language was telling: he often appeared impatient or disengaged while listening to the debate, sometimes scrolling through messages on his BlackBerry or slouching and chewing gum.

If this is accurate, this is stunning.

Two, those around him do not tell him things. This could be due to a fear of repercussions for upsetting him. Or maybe a fear that if he is told about it (such as wiretapping Merkel), he would tell them to stop. For example Sebelius apparently didn’t see fit to tell him?! How is this possible.

I don’t know which way this cuts.

But it seriously concerns me of how many significant issues the President finds out about from the media.

Update: The GOP helpfully lists all of the things the “bystander president” has learned from the media.