As usual, Obama was too kind to himself.
The Senate has just issued a report harshly critical of the White House, Pentagon, and State Department handling of Benghazi. The White House response? Oh, it was “just some sloppiness.”
Although there is a lot of competition, this may be one of the most offensive thing our president has ever said. It reminds me of this passage from Huckleberry Finn (Chap. 32), when Huck explains to his Aunt Sally that he was late because of a steamboat accident:
“It warn’t the grounding — that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.”
“Good gracious! anybody hurt?”
“No’m. Killed a nigger.”
“Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt….
No problem. The “sloppiness” killed only an ambassador and a couple of SEALS, and we have lots of those.
I haven’t been in the Oval Office, but I suspect Harry Truman’s famous “The Buck Stops Here” placque has been removed, perhaps replaced with one proclaiming “The Buck (Still) Stops With Bush!” or “The Buck Stops With Republicans!”
You don’t have to be a leadership expert to know that sloppiness at the top seeps down, as does the habit of blaming others and refusing to take responsibility.
