Posted on 10/30/2009 8:00:54 PM PDT by kristinn
At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20 direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.
Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.
Gibbs was asked about a statement by the mother of one of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. Dale Griffin, killed in Afghanistan this week whom Obama met with at Dover early Thursday morning. The mother, Dona Griffin, said she told Obama, Don't leave our troops hanging," when he asked the families if there was anything he could do for them. Gibbs was asked if Obama feels like he is leaving the troops hanging.
He responded that Obama is trying to "understand the full cost of the war."
MR. GIBBS: Again, we haven't gotten into broad specifics on that yet.
On the first part, Jeff, you know, look, I think -- I don't -- I used to have it calculated, I should just go back and do it, the number of hours that he has spent in these meetings is probably now -- well, at the end of today will probably be getting close to 20 direct hours of his time. The group -- the principals that meet with the President additionally take time to get the material ready, and are prepared to answer questions for the President, probably at least twice as much of that of the President's time the principals have spent.
So obviously we -- the President and his team have spent a pretty big chunk of time evaluating very, very closely each of these individual countries, their relationship together and their impact on the region.
At the conclusion of these meetings, he generally is off to the next thing. I think he has spent quite a bit of time after the meetings back in the office -- back in his office, probably primarily in the Residence at night, going back and reading through his notes, as well as -- notes that he's taken on the meetings, and oftentimes will come out with questions that the team will prepare the answers for, for the next meeting.
SNIPQ--Early yesterday morning when he was in Dover and met with the families, the families said that he asked, is there anything we can do for the families. And the mother of -- Dona Griffin, a mother of the last of the dignified transfers, said that she told the President, "Don't leave our troops hanging." When he walks into the Situation Room right about now, does he have any sense that the time he's taking to make these decisions is leaving those troops hanging?
MR. GIBBS: Again, to go back through what's happened, the President believed that additional forces were needed in March and he added them to get us to a point where we could evaluate the outcome of the election. That obviously has been delayed a little bit, but he believes this is a point in which it's necessary to fully assess where we are. I don't believe the President thinks -- I know he doesn't believe that this assessment is in any way doing that. I think he understands and I think, as you heard him say yesterday in the Oval Office, I think his commitment, particularly after going to a place like Dover, is to understand the full cost of the war.
We need to put OdumbO on a time clock.
He’s played about 24 rounds of golf at about 4 hrs per round. That is approximately 96 hrs of golf. I hope our Military heroes appreciate his sacrifice. No wonder Oath Keepers is growing.
I can spend 20 hours contemplating my lip gloss.
How do you save them to the hard drive?
Just wow. Thank you for the link.
DownloadHelper 4.2 is free with Firefox. Not easy...but it's free. I keep forgetting how to save videos with it, but there's a way. You convert them from flv's to...uh...something else! :)
Just see my tagline. :*(
20 FLIPPIN HOURS!?!!! That’s not even enough time in a week for a part-time position at McDonalds!!!!
This man WANTS us defeated! All 20 hours were spent trying to figure out how to make HIS own legacy, I’m sure.
He spent more time thinking about how to get his coffin peacenik trophy pic at Dover. He is VILE!!!!
I can’t even imagine the contempt our Troops must have for him.
And Gibbs says this like it’s something other than the grossest of insults to our Marines dying in that hell hole.
These people are sociopaths. This is by far the most perfectly evil leadership our nation has ever seen.
I think I tried that one before or one similar. It downloaded everything from the page even spyware. No thanks.
4 hours to play a round of golf on average. The Ponderer-in-Chief has sacrificed 5 rounds of golf.
What fortitude.
Okay, will someone please tell me what his oath on his inaguaration real was, what HE REALLY SAID VERBATIM? I really really wannna know.
My God in heaven. Can't someone take this smirk-faced asshole and stuff his head down a toilet?
Vile? We need to invent a new word for this excuse for puke.
I heard it takes Zer0 5 to 6 hours to play 18.
36 Hdcp.
Aside from the appalling lack of seriousness about his CIC duties of our golfing, jazz enjoying, date taking, politicking, dog and church finding, Olympics seeking, economy wrecking, Honduras-meddling imposter in chief, what I really cannot fathom is what possessed him to appoint Gibbs, the most stupid spokesdude ever, including Baghdad Bob. Can you imagine if a GOP spokesflack said anything that ridiculous and callous on military matters of life and death importance?
I think I spent 20 hours doing a religion term paper once, last day it was due of course. I ended up getting a C+.
Now, that was a term paper in my 3rd year of college. And an intro course at that.
Leader of the Free World Obama on the other hand....F!!!!
I wonder if he strokes his chin when he ponders? Or just raises his chin and gazes profoundly into the distance?
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