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.
60 (days) times 24 hours = 1440 hours.
20 (dedicated) hours that Gibbs claims obama has devoted to this issue is divided by 1440 hours and equals .0139 percent of obambi's time dedicated to the Aftgan issue.
Meanwhile, more of our sons and daughters are dying every day because that SOB can't make a decision.
I hate obambi. Yes, I said HATE. So what? Come and arrest me for hate speech. You know where I live. Just to let you know, I worked with Naval Investigative Service (NIS - now, NCIS) in my Navy days and know how clandestine ops worked. Think twice. Think I'm not prepared?
It’s kind of a supreme indication of what an Amateur Hour it is in the White House that Gibbels would even say that publicly. Apparently the crew there actually thinks that 20 hours is an impressive number.
I dunno...
But if I had to guess, I'd speculate that the bulk of the time that the O'Messiah has spent on the issue has been devoted to figuring out how he is going to manage the political fallout from his efforts to (effectively) lose the war, rather than actively working on how to achieve a meaningful victory...
60 days times a (8) hour working day equals - 480 working hours.
Divide Gibb's (20) "direct" hours he claims by (480) hours and that equals .0416 percent of time that obambi has given to the Aftgan effort. An issue where young men and women are dying on a daily basis.
Yet, obambi spends more time campaigning and giving speeches. Anyone have the total times for those events within 60 days of General McCrystal's first meeting? I'm sure the math would astound us all.
Again, I absolutely hate this man. And until the 1st Amendment is repealed, I get to say it.
OOOoooo a WHOLE 20 hours? How much time has he devoted in meeting for Obamacare, or planning the war on FOX??? Perhaps a little less court and green time might be a good idea??? I mean our guys and gals are out there in the dust 24/7 for a YEAR, and all he takes on the WAR in AFGHANISTAN is 20 WHOLE hours? What a fricken joke!
I don’t think 0 spends much time thinking about anything except himself.
We need to do something with this information, not just talk about it - like maybe make it into an ad? Totally disgusting!!! Yeah, it’s good to be king.
Yeah I was just gonna say..strike a match on that jaw :)
Thanks for the great pic!
God Bless them all!
Yes, and he spends a lot of time rehearsing for summits. I think the next one is in California.
obama spend 20 hours a DAY preening himself in front of mirrors for his next photo op. He disgusts me.
Is that Ganja he’s holding?
I suppose it's better than Monica.
This was September 14, 2009
Obama is making this a political decision.
The White House leaked out it will be made between November 7th and 11th.
When Gordon Brown announced more British troops were going (500) a few weeks ago, the BBC reported Obama had decided to send more troops.
The White House denied it, but I have no doubt Brown would not have committed more Brits without the assurance Obama would follow suit.
I think Obama is afraid of the Left in his own party and wants to wait until after the election next week to announce his decision.
It will be to send more troops.
The only question is how many?
The first brigade could not arrive until January of 2010 and after that the need to build facilities to house more troops would limit him to just one additional brigade every three months.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/30/eveningnews/main5465799.shtml
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WtF, Do these dumbass Dem think they need a stinkin Hilton to start fighting, I don’t think so. Must be trying to make it look like there is no rush for obambi to make a decision.
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