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According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, as reported at The Weekly Standard, President Obama was completely aloof from the events in Libya on September 11. He neither asked nor ordered anything. He did not respond to information sent to the White House. He was not involved at all, during the seven-plus-hour attack that resulted in the deaths of four American government employees, including an ambassador. A few months back, when, for the sake of argument, we were all giving Obama the benefit of the doubt on being human, albeit wretchedly so, I felt compelled to qualify a critique of the...

Panetta: Obama Absent Night of Benghazi Daniel Halper February 7, 2013 12:05 PM Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified this morning on Capitol Hill that President Barack Obama was absent the night four Americans were murdered in Benghazi on September 11, 2012: Panetta said that Obama left operational details, including knowledge of what resources were available to help the Americans under siege, "up to us." In fact, Panetta says that the night of 9/11, he did not communicate with a single person at the White House. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Panetta said...

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta revealed on Thursday that he personally broke the news to President Obama that an attack was unfolding on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. Mr. Panetta said he was given an alert about the attack just before arriving at the White House for an unrelated and prescheduled meeting with the president. “It’s something I introduced to the president,” the defense secretary said, acknowledging for the first time that he and Mr. Obama were well aware that the attack was occurring while they met at the White House that day. Mr....

Today's hearing on Benghazi is just sad. We have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the outgoing Secretary of Defense testifying to the Senate hearing that even though it was 9/11, who everyone and their mother understood is the anniversary of the worst attack on American soil...even though, due in no small part to Obama's actions, Libya had become a hotbed of al-Qaeda activity, AND even though the ambassador to Libya had sent warning of impending threats, they did nothing to ensure the security of the embassy and our citizens. Their excuse? “The United States military is...

After David Axelrod’s repeated assurances this morning on Fox News Sunday that “there isn’t anybody on this planet” who feels a greater sense of responsibility for our diplomats than this President, Chris Wallace asked how soon after the Benghazi attacks the President actually met with his national security team. Wallace followed up on Axelrod’s non-answer by asking whether the President managed to squeeze in a meeting with the National Security Council before jetting off to Las Vegas for a campaign rally. Given Axelrod’s inability to produce a straightforward answer to the questions, it’s pretty clear the answer is “no.”

The last few weeks have produced many intriguing political moments, but none as shocking as the revelation that President Obama has been absent from the vast majority of his daily intelligence briefings. According to a study by the Government Accountability Institute, Obama failed to attend a single Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) in the week leading up to the recent anniversary of 9/11 and the chaos that erupted in the Arab world. The mere fact that we were approaching 9/11 was a crucial enough reason to attend not one but all the briefings. President Obama attended none. Worse, this is apparently...

"This will not stand!" declared George H.W. Bush.He was speaking of Saddam Hussein's invasion, occupation and annexation of the emirate of Kuwait as his "19th province."Seven months later, the Iraqi army was fleeing up the "Highway of Death" back into a country devastated by five weeks of U.S. bombing.When Bush spoke, the world sat up and listened.Consider the change."It's time for Gadhafi to go," said President Barack Obama two weeks ago. "So, let me just be very unambiguous about this. Col. Gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave." And did he go?Receiving Obama's ultimatum, Gadhafi rallied his troops...

Earlier this week I gave an interview to Fox News, talking about how the president seems paralysed in the face of the Libyan crisis, as Colonel Gaddafi’s forces make progress towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, leaving death and destruction in their wake. While Barack Obama has dithered, and his Secretary of State has worshipped at the altar of the United Nations, one of the most brutal tyrants on the face of the earth is getting away with murder, with a death toll that could reach as high as 15,000. It is a sad day when the foreign policy of...

INEFFECTUAL, invisible, unable to honour pledges and now blamed for letting Gaddafi off the hook. Why Obama’s gone from ‘Yes we can’ to ‘Er, maybe we shouldn’t’... Let us cast our minds back to those remarkable days in November 2008 when the son of a Kenyan goatherd was elected to the White House. It was a bright new dawn – even brighter than the coming of the Kennedys and their new Camelot. JFK may be considered as being from an ethnic and religious minority – Irish and Catholic – but he was still very rich and very white. Barack Obama,...

MARCH 18, 2011 President 'Present' Obama dodges the big decisions to keep his approval ratings up. KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL One knock on Barack Obama in the 2008 election was his record as an Illinois state senator, where he repeatedly ducked tough issues by voting "present." It seems old habits die hard. If you'd like to know where the leader of the free world stands on those NCAA rankings, just turn on ESPN. ("I think Kansas has more firepower," he explained as he filled out his bracket.) Wondering what the commander in chief thinks about gun laws? Don't worry—he's in favor...

Mr Obama has refused to scrap a five-day trip to Latin America that will take him to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. Resisting demands that he should remain at home in the White House to deal with the international response to Japan’s nuclear crisis and Colonel Gaddafi’s crackdown on anti-government rebels, the president insists he can stay on top of the fast-moving developments while on the road. Some Republican critics have complained the sunshine trip symbolises Mr Obama’s lack of leadership at a time of international chaos. But White House press secretary Jay Carney said Mr Obama felt the visit...

As Mark Steyn noted, President Obama is getting out in front on the NCAA Men’s National Basketball Tournament. Don’t get me wrong, I like putting together an NCAA basketball tournament bracket just as much as the next guy. And let’s acknowledge that NCAA hoops brackets and things like fantasy football pools can be productivity drains in many offices across the country. But the difference between President Obama and the rest of us is that we aren’t calling a meeting of the White House communications staff to rehearse our bracket unveils for a national TV audience while ducking national-security issues, budget negotiations, Social Security reform meetings … you get the idea. And certainly most of us...

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama headlines a Democratic party event Wednesday night, the second time this week and fourth time this month he's been the main attraction at a party gathering. The official White House schedule says that the president delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee event at a hotel in the nation's capital. A source with knowledge of the gathering tells CNN that Obama will speak to members of the DNC's national advisory board and national finance committee.

Mr Obama has refused to scrap a five-day trip to Latin America that will take him to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. Resisting demands that he should remain at home in the White House to deal with the international response to Japan’s nuclear crisis and Colonel Gaddafi’s crackdown on anti-government rebels, the president insists he can stay on top of the fast-moving developments while on the road. Some Republican critics have complained the sunshine trip symbolises Mr Obama’s lack of leadership at a time of international chaos. But White House press secretary Jay Carney said Mr Obama felt the visit...

Golf, NCAA brackets, Democratic fundraisers, trips to Rio….the president may be engaged in a lot of hard work on Japan, the Middle East and North Africa, the budget and the economy behind the scenes, but he seems conscious of the fact that participating in some of these other activities might not look so good. At a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel late this afternoon, President Obama took a moment to discuss Japan and American leadership.

Yes, I know: Japan is in the middle of the meltdown of 4 nuclear reactors on the heels of a monster earthquake and biblical tsunami. I’m aware that Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya remain a tinderbox. Gas prices are up, food prices have skyrocketed nearly 4% in just one month – the most since 1974! There seem to be a lot going on in the world to set off the panic button. Butt I’m taking my cue from the Wons. And their message is “stay focused on what’s important.” So yesterday Big Guy nailed his brackets for ESPN and met...

President Obama's 2011 NCAA Brackets Posted by Jesse Lee on March 16, 2011 at 12:20 PM EDT As he does every year, the President filled out his brackets predicting the winners of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, but discussing it with Doris Burke of ESPN, he began with a call to stand with the people of Japan: One of the things I wanted to do on the show was, as people are filling out their brackets -- this is obviously a national pastime; we all have a great time, it’s a great diversion. But I know a lot...

Mike Viqueira of NBC News asked White House press secretary Jay Carney whether today was really the best time for President Obama to make time for college basketball brackets, with the crisis in Japan still escalating. "Is it entirely appropriate for the president to be addressing a crisis of this gravity as he's standing before a whiteboard talking about the basketball tournament?" Viqueira asked. Carney was clearly waiting for him. "There are crises all the time," he said, "for every president."

A dizzying succession of major world events is bombarding a president who insists on controlling his own time, emotions and political message. With Japan’s nuclear crisis teetering on the verge of catastrophe, with Libya and Bahrain in violent turmoil, and with financial markets crashing in response, President Barack Obama has been adamantly sticking to his own political and policy playbook. That has meant muscling past the red-siren headlines to hammer away at the jobs-and-education message that will be the centerpiece of his 2012 campaign, the kind of discipline that is a hallmark of his new senior adviser, David Plouffe. And...