President Obama is under fire this week for two things — ISIS grew and metastasized on his watch, and he used Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview to blame his intelligence team, and pretty much everyone else but himself.
The “ISIS are jayvee” comment came out of Obama’s own mouth, and reflected his own thinking — at a time when warnings were coming from the intelligence community indicating that ISIS was a clear and growing threat.
In the 2012 campaign, Obama spoke not only of killing Osama bin Laden; he also said that Al Qaeda had been “decimated.” I pointed out that the flag of Al Qaeda is now flying in Falluja, in Iraq, and among various rebel factions in Syria; Al Qaeda has asserted a presence in parts of Africa, too.
“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” Obama said, resorting to an uncharacteristically flip analogy.
Forget the Lakers, ISIS are the Spurs now. They’ve taken over territory the size of the UK and have a $1 billion stash.
Former (?) Obama spokesman Jay Carney appeared on CNN Monday night. Carney worked in the Obama White House during the rise of the Islamic State. So he is positioned to shed some light on the thinking inside, if he chooses to be candid.
Carney chooses to remain an apologist instead, insisting that when Obama tosses DNI James Clapper under the bus, he isn’t really tossing James Clapper under the bus.
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