Twin Scandals Sap Obama Credibility

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/13/twin-scandals-sap-obama-
credibility/?intcmp=obnetwork

��statements in the [group�s] case file criticize how the country is being
run.�

-- One of the criteria used by IRS investigators to target small-
government groups for special scrutiny, according to an agency audit
provided to congressional investigators.

Team Obama has always known how to make the most of critics in order to
make the least of criticism.

During the 2008 campaign, it was �Stop the Smears,� an Obama effort to
single out those who made claims about the candidate�s nativity, faith or
personal conduct, rounding up the most slanderous and paranoiac claims,
publicizing and then refuting them.

Then when more credible individuals would get near the subject, the
campaign could strike back. Recall Hillary Clinton back in March 2008 on
CBS strenuously defending then-Sen. Barack Obama against claims that he
was a Muslim but then leaving the door open just a bit by saying, �As far
as I know.�

Obamaland went on the attack over those five words, and Clinton paid
dearly.

And so it went in office. The best example was how much attention was paid
to the small number of people focused on the idea that President Obama was
born someplace other than Hawaii. They even had coffee mugs made with the
president�s birth certificate.

For weeks, as John Boehner or Mitch McConnell went out to talk about tax
policy or spending, they would have to face questions about the
president�s birth certificate. Before the GOPers could talk about their
problems with Keynesian economics, righteous reporters would make
Republicans first discuss Kenya.

There was also the effort to elevate Rush Limbaugh as the de facto
spokesman for the Republican Party, with the White House press secretary
demanding that reporters inquire of Republican office holders whether they
agreed with the conservative radio host who had said he hoped Obama would
fail because the new president�s agenda was so destructive. The reporters
did just that and much squirming was the result.

Or how about the White House encouraging supporters to collect claims made
online about what would become Obama�s 2010 health law? As the
implementation of the law has shown, there was much reasonable cause for
concern with the legislation. But that�s not what the White House was
hunting for. Team Obama wanted the grainiest sediment from the bottom of
the can of mixed nuts.

Obama favors a similar technique in policy speeches, having built enough
straw men over the years for every pumpkin patch in history.

This approach has helped the president keep his personal approval ratings
above those of his individual policies and allowed he and his political
team to depict critics, even legitimate ones, as racist, xenophobic, kooky
and stupid. The president�s credibility and reasonableness have been
enhanced and his detractors have been delegitimized � enough so that Obama
won what once looked like an improbable second term.

So what happens when that stops working? We�re about to find out.
Obama used the same playbook when defending himself against claims of
ineptitude and cover-up concerning a September raid by Islamist militants
on a U.S. diplomatic outpost. What might have been a disaster for the
president was turned around in a neat bit of political jujitsu with the
help of Candy Crowley and a tentative challenger.

The line held for a long time, with the administration able to dismiss
critics on the subject as obsessed conspiracy theorists or politically
motivated phonies. But the evidence of hiding the facts from the public
eventually became so great that Team Obama has had to begin a long,
painful backward march.

When an official is found to have scrubbed talking points about the attack
expressly to deny Republicans the opportunity to criticize the
administration, it becomes clear that Obama was wrong when he said his
administration was being forthcoming. It also opens the door to the next
round of questioning about whether Obama and then-Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton were willfully misinformed or willfully spreading
misinformation. Neither is good.

With reporters plenty embarrassed by having been badly burned by Team
Obama on the Benghazi attacks, a new scandal comes into view: the
deliberate targeting of conservative groups by the IRS.

The agency tried to get out ahead of the scandal by going public just
before congressional investigators released their findings. The timing,
though, is even worse for the White House.

A government agency going after groups that oppose the president�s agenda
and, most disconcertingly, support constitutional principles, would never
be a good thing for an administration. But having the admission come at
the exact moment the administration�s credibility is badly damaged for
misleading the public on another subject is dire.

Just a few months ago, claims of a Benghazi cover up and the government
hassling and intimidating the president�s critics were dismissed as kooky.
Now both have been revealed to be true, leaving the president�s team
unable to use the old jujitsu and retreat to the old-school techniques of
compartmentalization (�isolated incident in a single agency�) and
insulation (�the president did not order��).

The best recipes for Lame Duck Soup call for a healthy scoop of scandal.
Obama just got himself a double helping.



--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.

Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptness.

Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 200% and leaves millions without health care.

Obama helped bankrupt Illinois. Democrat run Chicago closes 54 public
schools.

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