The Obama White House on Thursday released a photo of the president, sitting on the back of a couch in the Oval Office. His arms are folded and he looks dejected, maybe mournful. Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan stands before him. According to the White House, the photo shows the moment that Obama learned of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, in which 20 children and six adults lost their lives to a mad man.
Obama has described the killings as the “worst day of his presidency.”
About three months prior to that day, four Americans died in a terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. In the immediate aftermath of that attack, and for the two weeks that followed, President Obama and his top lieutenants blamed the attack on a movie. But it was later revealed that the administration received information from the scene indicating that the attack was a pre-planned terrorist assault, orchestrated by Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda group operating in Libya and across that region. Reports emerged that someone in the administration ordered forces standing by to assist the Americans during the assault to “stand down.” No relief was sent.
The Obama White House has not released any photos of President Obama from the night of September 11, 2012. The American people have been told that the president met with his top national security officials and the White House Situation Room was monitoring the attack as it unfolded. The president went to bed the night of the attack, not knowing whether US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was missing at that point, was dead or alive. Stevens was murdered in the attack. Obama delivered brief remarks on the attack the following morning, and then flew to Las Vegas for a political fundraiser.
The Obama White House has never explained its decision not to release photos from the night of the assault in Benghazi.
Update: Well, looky here.
I notice the picture of George Washington behind the poseur. It doesn’t ever get commented on much that I am aware of, but consider this as further evidence of Washington’s practical political skill, as well as his worthiness to be considered great–when he, the preeminent man in the nation, retired from the scene in 1783, it had the practical effect of insuring a republic–that if the preeminent man in the nation wasn’t going to set up a Cromwell-style government, no one else probably would ever be able to either. His being at Mount Vernon would thus always be a safety valve for the new nation, because next to him everyone else paled. Thus, in 1787 his reluctance to fet involved with the Philadelphia Convention might be attributable not just to concern over his reputation and the awkwardness with the Sons of Cincinnatti, but that the new nation would lose an essentially uncheckable force against a cabal (one can presume his 1797 retirement was intended with the same in mind).
It also had the practical effect of demonstrating to the nation 1783-1787 that the folks in Congress in 1783 were not uniquely “brilliant” men, to be trusted as a Chavez or Obama if they turned to demagoguery.
Thus, perhaps one of George Washington’s greatest traits is this, and is why he is still the greatest President, more so than Lincoln–in 1783 it was more important to him that the nation be a Republic than that he have power or title of office.
Most men aren’t like that.
I would describe the worst day of Obama’s presidency as today — but tomorrow will be worse, and the next day worse still. But none of them would have been possible without November 4, 2008.
So we keep a photog onsite, full time, awaiting lip-biting incidents and records for posterity, “Barry’s Emotional Moments”?
So much wrong with this picture, and many others sure to follow. Imagine HimSelf’s Library and all the various images hanging on the walls.
I’m… Gonna… HURL…..!!!!!!!
Congress should call the photographer to testify about Benghazi. Who knew what when.