President Obama delivered his first public remarks on the Veterans Administration scandal today, a week after the scandal first broke. The president, who is often quick to comment on pop culture and sports in real time, broke his silence by declaring that he would not tolerate mistreatment of veterans.
Which was a strange thing to say, coming from a man who has tolerated mistreatment of veterans for six years, and who failed to fire anyone in the current scandal. In fact, Obama declared that Gen. Eric Shinseki, who heads the VA, still has his full confidence and will stay on the job.
The closest the president came to holding anyone accountable for the growing VA scandal was to call for the problem to be studied. It was studied in 2005 and 2008. Problems were found, but not fixed.
The bottom line is that, today, President Barack Obama was forced by the building scandal into saying something. So he said something. As far as he is concerned, his job is done.
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