RUSH: This is Marc Thiessen, opinion writer, Washington Post: “Obama Alone: This President Does Not Need Intel Briefers.” Wait ’til you hear this spin. We’ve already got Obama walking back a major gaffe, this statement that Egypt is not an ally. They have been since 1989. Regardless the Muslim Brotherhood situation now, they’ve always been an ally. Folks, they’ve had to walk that back now. This is a major gaffe, and even foreign policy media people know this, and that’s why they’re walking this back, because there are some people who are not in the media laying down for this one.
Now, another complaint about Obama is he hadn’t been briefed, right? We’ve heard this in the last couple days, that he misses a lot of intelligence briefings. So the White House has to do something about that. Here we are in the midst of a total collapse of foreign policy and the news comes out that he hasn’t attended but half of his intelligence briefings. That’s a problem. That is a real problem. So the White House has gone into spin mode, and what they’re now telling the media is, he doesn’t have to go to the briefings because he reads the brief every day. It’s the first thing delivered to him in the residence. He reads the daily brief. He doesn’t need to be briefed in person by his experts. He reads it and moves on.
It’s the same guy that I just quoted in the story about walking back the gaffe on Egypt being an ally, a guy named Vietor, Tommy Vietor. And what this guy said is stunning. He said a president doesn’t need briefers. He can forgo his daily intelligence meeting because he’s “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”
He’s smarter than the briefers. This is what the White House has put out. Tommy Vietor, White House spokesman, trying to explain Obama not attending actual intelligence briefings, said he is “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.” And, “Truly sophisticated consumers of intelligence donÂ’t see it as a sign of weakness to ‘be briefed’ by the experts.” This is what Mr. Thiessen is writing. What do you mean sophisticated consumers?
Every president’s a sophisticated consumer, but they don’t think that it’s a sign of weakness to be briefed by the experts. These people are trying to say that Obama’s smarter than everybody else that’s working for him. And he said it, by the way, during his convention. (imitating Obama) “I know more than my political director does. I know more than my intelligence people.” He really does think of himself this way. So that’s the spin from the White House to explain his lack of attendance at an intelligence briefing. He doesn’t need to. He reads ’em. He’s smarter than the briefers, and he’s among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet, while he’s on the campaign trail. They obviously think it’ll help putting this out. This is damage control. Yeah, they think it’ll help.
They still think that everybody else still thinks of Obama the way they looked at him in 2008: smartest guy around, nobody ever been in politics like this before, great uniter, this messianic stuff, they still buy it. They’re still trying to promote it. This whole campaign’s based on that. This whole campaign’s based on the fact Obama hadn’t really been president yet. He’s been too busy fixing a mess he had nothing to do with. Breathtaking.
You know, I have to say something here, folks. And then we’re gonna go to the phones. And I myself have asked this question, too. You’ve heard me ask it. A lot of people on our side, before all this stuff popped up, “How in the world is Romney not running away with this?” And the reason for the question is, the economy’s in a tatter. This guy is obviously woefully inept and incompetent. Everything he does makes it worse. The economy is just in horrible shape with no sign whatsoever of getting better. How in the world is he still in this? Remember that question?
I think there’s a better question to ask that puts this in better perspective. Why isn’t Obama up 20 points in the polls right now? That’s the real question. The Federal Reserve is propping up Barack Obama. The media is propping up Barack Obama like they haven’t propped up a candidate ever. Hollywood is propping up Barack Obama. Bill Clinton is propping up Barack Obama. Michelle (My Belle) Obama is propping up Barack Obama. Everybody, every institution, academia, propping up Barack Obama. Why isn’t he up 20 points with all of this assistance, all of this propping up?
The fact is the polls now say this election is close. The polls say it’s up for grabs again. Whatever convention bounce there was is gone. The real question is not why isn’t Romney up 15 or 20. The real question, how is Romney so close, given all the forces aligned and arrayed against him? And by same token, how is it that Obama is not 20 points ahead? Can you imagine if our candidate had this kind of assistance? The media being totally in the tank and every story, not just being favorable about you, but every story also attempting to destroy the opponent. If we had Hollywood on our side, E Entertainment TV on our side, MTV on our side, all the late night comics on our side, everything in pop culture on our side for our candidate, and if we weren’t up by 20 points, we would be shocked. We wouldn’t know what to do with that anyway.
But it, I think, illustrates the question, “How is Romney still in this, given all that?” And therein lies a reason why you should be optimistic. Because with all these forces arrayed against Romney, he should have been taken out by now. I’m talking about in polls. Romney should be so far down as to be at a place where he couldn’t recover, with all of this. All this opposition, all this propping up of Obama, and yet, where they’re worried and where they’re scared is in the White House. Where they’re worried and where they’re scared is in the Obama campaign. Now, throw this foreign policy mess on the top of it and we may have a tipping point here.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’re just sharing with you Marc Thiessen’s piece in the Washington Post (that would be “Warsh-ington Post” for those of you in Rio Linda), in which White House is putting out the idea that Obama is the most sophisticated consumer of intelligence ever, and he doesn’t need to be briefed by his intelligence experts. He reads the brief every day. He’s more briefed, he’s more knowledgeable than anybody else about it, and he’s the most sophisticated consumer of this stuff. So he doesn’t need to actually see people.
Well, along those lines, Michael Lewis, the famed author (Blind Side was one of his books) was on with Charlie Rose last night. He’s got a piece on Obama coming out in Vanity Fair, and Charlie Rose said (satirized), “Tell me, Michael, Tom Brokaw and I were talking. We really don’t know the guy. We don’t know what books he reads. We don’t know his mentors are. It’s been five years, Michael, and we were just talking the other day about how we still don’t know who the guy is. Tell me, how does his mind work?”
LEWIS: He’s bright. He’s obviously bright. It’s interesting to see some of his abilities –because he’s a person of kind of high abilities — in that office because the office is beyond anybody’s abilities. There’s no way you are anything but the amateur in the room on most subjects. You’ve got these experts coming at you. And I think his mind is good enough that he might, at some times (snickers), deceive himself in thinking that he’s always the smartest person in the room.
RUSH: (Gasp!) He thinks he’s the smartest person in the room; he’s deceiving himself by thinking he’s the smartest person in the room. Hasn’t that always been something I’ve said about him? But here again is the assumption: “Oh, he’s smart! Oh, oh, oh, Charlie! Oh! He has high abilities. He’s bright, obviously bright, Charlie!” Where’s the evidence? Would somebody show me the evidence of this?