During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his [Presidential Daily Briefing] 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. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.
...Officials tell me the former president [Bush 43] held his intelligence meeting six days a week, no exceptions... Once a week, he held an expanded Homeland Security briefing that included the Homeland Security adviser, the FBI director and other homeland security officials. Bush also did more than 100 hour-long “deep dives” in which he invited intelligence analysts into the Oval Office to get their unvarnished and sometimes differing views. Such meetings deepened the president’s understanding of the issues and helped analysts better understand the problems with which he was wrestling.
When Obama forgoes this daily intelligence meeting, he is consciously placing other priorities ahead of national security.
And the president also appears to be placing other priorities ahead of the economy and unemployment: from April 2011 through July 24, 2012, the president hasn't received a single daily economic briefing.
Something is missing. If you look at Barack Obama's calendar for 26th of April, 2011 you will see on his schedule at 10 AM "The President receives the Economic Daily Briefing," after that nothing. According to the daily schedule released by the White House, Barack Obama hasn't received his "daily" economic briefing for the past 15 months (The White House, Accessed 7/23/12).
Somehow, however, the president has managed to work in 104 rounds of golf and hundreds of games of pickup basketball.
Fortunately there are no pressing economic or national security issues for the country.
The ultimate executive goal:
ReplyDeleteTo be in charge of but not responsible for.
Consistent with his opinion of himself and his general management style. Remember, he has said he was better qualified than anyone on his staff, so he doesn't need discussion or meetings. Reading the stuff is enough, as he already knows the answers anyway.
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