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.
WOW
20 hours compared to golfing, basketball, late night talk shows, vacationing and campaigning. When does he have the time?
He doesn't mind sucking down one hundred dollar a pound Kobe beef while his idiot wife does the Hula Hoop. In the meantime better men are spillng their blood.
Thanks. But how do you figure that?
True, his distractions tend to be amazingly expensive.
You got zer0’s number!
.
A real lowlife cokehead thug
He could never even decide whether he was a Crip or a Blood
Write off all who support Obama - All of them
Thanks!
And we are paying for them. If it were up to me he wouldn't have a ping pong table.
"Close" to 20 hours?
"CLOSE"???
Just when I thought I couldn't be any more disgusted by Obama and his evil regime, something like this pops up.
Please, dear Lord, save us from this evil man!
Pondering?
Is Fibbs stealing from Casey Kasem’s rant?
“Ponderous man, ****ing ponderous”.
At the same time keep a close eye on them.
This is absolutely embarrassing!
While on the golf course I'm sure...
Are you suprised? I'm not. I spotted this turd a long way off.
This from a man with 144 days attendance in the Senate.
In all seriousness, I can spin this a lot better than Gibbs can. If any decent attorney/PR guy/ad man in the private sector was willing to take a pay cut they could spin this better than Gibbs.
He is horrible.
Just for kicks and giggles, I’d love to see FReepers who actually have a real job play devil’s advocate and give him what he should have said.
Less time than he’s spent in Jersey campaigning for Corzine’s re-election - but then, first things first.....
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