![…
Steve Benen | The bogus ‘intelligence briefings’ talking point
In recent weeks, and especially over the last few days, the right has become fully invested in a strange line of attack against President Obama. As we discussed on Tuesday, Dick Cheney, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, and others are accusing Obama of “skipping” intelligence briefings related to national security. The closer one looks at the argument, the dumber it appears.
[…] But what about the meetings the president is allegedly “skipping”? There are no such meetings — as Dana Milbank explained today, “In reality, Obama didn’t ‘attend’ these meetings, because there were no meetings to attend: The oral briefings had been mostly replaced by daily exchanges in which Obama reads the materials and poses written questions and comments to intelligence officials. This is how it was done in the Clinton administration, before Bush decided he would prefer to read less. Bush’s results — Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and the failure to find Osama bin Laden — suggest this was not an obvious improvement.”
[…] Update: I’ve since been informed by a Democratic source that the president didn’t even have any fundraisers in Nevada yesterday. The attack is wrong on every possible level.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maei359ZJ61qf10tro1_500.jpg)
…
Steve Benen | The bogus ‘intelligence briefings’ talking point
In recent weeks, and especially over the last few days, the right has become fully invested in a strange line of attack against President Obama. As we discussed on Tuesday, Dick Cheney, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, and others are accusing Obama of “skipping” intelligence briefings related to national security. The closer one looks at the argument, the dumber it appears.
[…] But what about the meetings the president is allegedly “skipping”? There are no such meetings — as Dana Milbank explained today, “In reality, Obama didn’t ‘attend’ these meetings, because there were no meetings to attend: The oral briefings had been mostly replaced by daily exchanges in which Obama reads the materials and poses written questions and comments to intelligence officials. This is how it was done in the Clinton administration, before Bush decided he would prefer to read less. Bush’s results — Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and the failure to find Osama bin Laden — suggest this was not an obvious improvement.”
[…] Update: I’ve since been informed by a Democratic source that the president didn’t even have any fundraisers in Nevada yesterday. The attack is wrong on every possible level.
