Marc Thiessen, the former Bush speechwriter and torture apologist who was inexplicably given a spot as a columnist for the Washington Post, is behind the currently popular lie that President Obama has “skipped more than half of his daily intelligence briefings.” Glenn Kessler, writing at the same paper, shows why this is nonsense:
The notion that Obama has skipped his intelligence briefings was promoted by a right-leaning research group called the Government Accountability Institute, which published a report detailing that the president’s daily calendar shows Obama receiving an in-person briefing on the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) 43.8 percent of his time in office. (The percentage dropped from a high of 48.8 percent in 2010 to 38.2 percent through May of 2012.)
Marc Thiessen, a former Bush speechwriter who writes an opinion column for The Washington Post, then drew attention to what he called the “startling new statistics” in the report. His column on the subject is cited as the source in the American Crossroads ad.
That column also includes the White House’s response — that Obama reads his PDB every day, but he does not always require an in-person briefing every day. The White House argument is that this is how Obama structured his White House operation, so it is specious to say he has “skipped” a meeting that was not actually scheduled.
Kessler points out that each president has had a different manner of receiving the daily intelligence briefing from the CIA. George W. Bush preferred to have a CIA official give him a verbal version of it, so he had such meetings every morning. Obama prefers to read the daily briefing and then ask follow up questions of the CIA when he has such questions. But every single morning, he receives the briefing and so does the senior national security staff, which meets to discuss it. Just another lie.
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garnetstar
September 29, 2012 at 11:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That Obama knows how to read is just another indication that he’s a Commie academic elitist.
If he was a true American, he would be illiterate, like Bush.
slc1
September 29, 2012 at 11:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The fact that a piece of filth like Thiessen is given a column in a paper like the Washington Post is an insult to the newspaper profession. Of course, the fact that the paper’s editorial page editor, Fred Hyatt allows Thiessen to lie on his page shouldn’t be surprising. Hyatt also allows George Will to lie about global climate change and prints the crap of Jennifer Rubin and Charles Krauthammer. Hyatt is a disgrace to the newspaper profession, no better then Karl Rove and Rupert Murdock.
Zeno
September 29, 2012 at 12:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess Bush needed to be told things (and was accustomed by his handlers to this mode of instruction), while Obama is able to read briefing documents for himself. Since literacy is apparently anti-American (as evidenced by numerous Tea-Party posters), Obama stands condemned!
thebookofdave
September 29, 2012 at 4:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“George W. Bush preferred to have a CIA official give him a verbal version of it, so he had such meetings every morning.”
That had to be a compromise process. It probably wasn’t Dubya’s preferred method of getting his PDB. I could hardly imagine the difficulties of even a fully staffed comic illustration studio releasing these reports in a timely manner, though.
Modusoperandi
September 29, 2012 at 5:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You do know that they’re written in Arabic, right?
Now, I’m not making accusations. I’m just asking questions, that’s all.
Dr X
September 29, 2012 at 7:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bush also used a briefing coloring book. It helped him remember things.
david
September 29, 2012 at 7:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Even with Bush being told the contents, he didn’t retain the information and act on it.
Modusoperandi
September 29, 2012 at 7:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dr X “Bush also used a briefing coloring book. It helped him remember things.”
Now you’re just being ridiculous. It was a pop-up book.
tommykey
September 29, 2012 at 8:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My cousin’s husband, who is a real Obama hater, posted something about this on Facebook recently. The other was taking Obama to task for going on The View instead of meeting with foreign leaders at that UN thing here in NY recently. Looks like the picture of Obama that the right is trying to disseminate is that of a lazy president who would rather go to fundraisers and hang out with celebrities than doing his job as president.
yoav
September 29, 2012 at 8:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m confused now, I thought the whole point of Obama using his time machine to go back and forge his birth certificate was so he can get his muslim claws on the intelligence briefing and destroy murka.
TCC
September 29, 2012 at 9:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Must…resist…urge…to…nitpick…
Okay, I give: Both versions are verbal, but only one is oral. (And yes, I know that the word is beginning to gain that usage.)
kantalope
September 30, 2012 at 12:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh I hope people will still read this: I get to plug one of my favorite podcasts. Spycast from the Spy Museum. They have a podcast that is right on topic http://www.spymuseum.org/spycasts/intelligence-and-presidency . Some Presidents like things written, some Presidents like things presented. Some like the combo. As for Cousin’s husbands…what can you do? But do check out the podcast they cover all kinds of interesting things.
How about presidential vacation: http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/7127735-418/obamas-vacation-ripped-but-hes-taken-less-time-off-than-bush.html
But since that is lamestream cousin’s husbands won’t believe it or they’ll explain that Obama is playing golf..W was clearing brush and that is totally different.
dingojack
September 30, 2012 at 1:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
TCC – *ahem*
Sorry to spoil your hunt for the egg-cases of lice.
Dingo
sunsangnim
September 30, 2012 at 2:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And Reagan needed videos that look like they were designed for 7th grade students.
Michael Heath
September 30, 2012 at 8:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
sunsangnim writes:
I find this perfectly analogous to conservatives who absurdly claim President Obama’s rhetoric is merely the product of his reading a teleprompter. Probably because such assertions come from the same type of thinking and ideological/partisan-dominated point of reference.
Modusoperandi
September 30, 2012 at 9:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Michael Heath “I find this perfectly analogous to conservatives who absurdly claim President Obama’s rhetoric is merely the product of his reading a teleprompter. Probably because such assertions come from the same type of thinking and ideological/partisan-dominated point of reference.”
To be fair, Michael Heath, Reagan did prefer briefings delivered in a manner that he could shoot with his Captain Power Powerjet XT-7 lightgun.
tbp1
October 1, 2012 at 8:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You know, you could probably write a post with that headline every day, and just fill in the details.