President Obama’s Competency Collapse Part 2: Why His Latest Comments On The ISIS Threat Should Trouble You

How’s this for a lede?

“In attempting to downplay the political damage from a slew of second-term controversies, President Obama has counted on the American people having a very short memory span and a healthy suspension of disbelief.”

National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar takes on President Obama’s assertion during a 60 Minutes interview Sunday night that intelligence agencies didn’t take the threat from ISIS seriously enough. Obama effectively “passed the buck” for his administration’s failure to see this problem coming.

Kraushaar uses quotes from NBC Foreign Affairs Correspondent Richard Engel and former Democratic congressman Joe Sestak to note that everyone even moderately familiar with the Middle East knew Islamic extremism was rising the region. It’s unacceptable for the commander-in-chief–who receives daily intelligence briefings, mind you–to suddenly be shocked that this “JV team” is suddenly a serious threat to national security.

The most effective part of the piece, however, is that Kraushaar broadens it to how this type of response from President Obama is par for the course from this administration. Kraushaar makes the case that Obama’s time in office has become the “pass-the-buck presidency”:

“The elements of the administration’s blame, deny, and wait-it-out communications strategy has been front and center amid all the recent controversies. When the administration badly botched the launch of the health care exchange website, Obama said he was ‘not informed directly that the website would not be working the way it was supposed to.’ This, for his signature achievement in office. Blame was later pinned on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who left the administration in April.

“When officials at the Internal Revenue Service improperly targeted conservative outside groups for scrutiny, Obama first feigned outrage, saying he had “no patience for” the misconduct. But months later, as the public’s anger subsided, Obama said there ‘wasn’t even a smidgen of corruption’ at the agency, and the administration has done little to hold anyone accountable since.

“After CNN reported that Veterans Affairs Department offices covered up long wait times at several of its facilities, former Obama press secretary Jay Carney said, ‘We learned about them through the [news] reports.’ Long wait times were hardly a secret, with Obama himself campaigning on VA reform as a candidate. To his credit, Obama signed legislation reforming the VA and replaced embattled Secretary Eric Shinseki. But the president himself escaped much of the blame, even though he was clearly familiar with the long-standing problems that the agency faced.

“The administration’s approach to controversies was best crystallized by former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, who deflected criticism about allegations that talking points on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were altered for political reasons. ‘Dude, this was two years ago,’ he told Bret Baier of Fox News. The remarks were perceived as flippant, but they underscored the success of the administration’s public-relations strategy. Buy enough time, and inevitably problems tend to go away—especially in today’s attention-deprived environment.”

Last July, Kraushaar took on this same topic on in a separate piece saying, “The White House seems more comfortable stage-managing the news than dealing with the uncomfortable crises that inevitably crop up.” Back then, we termed it Obama’s “competency collapse.”

Remember for one moment that “competence” was supposed to be an asset for President Obama–or at least it was thought to be early in his presidency. When he was elected, 76 percent of respondents said he was an effective manager, according to a CNN/ORC poll. In 2010, he was praised as “the consummate competent professional in a crisis.”

But, to borrow a phrase from our friend Tommy Vietor, “Dude, this was four years ago.”

According to a CNN/ORC poll taken in late July, now 57 percent of respondents believe Obama cannot manage government effectively.

This drastic shift has occurred because, as Kraushaar notes, the public sees the White House not as leaders, but simply as stage managers who manipulate crises until they eventually fall off the front pages. The governmental equivalent of “Hey, look over there!”

Fear not America: eventually the threat to our national security from ISIS will fade from cable news; the national security experts around for satellite hits or critical quotes will pack up and go home; and the White House will congratulate itself on another job well done.