Michael Barley's Blog

The PA GOP Pulse

Obama captaining a Ship Of Fools?

I remember talking to a Democratic official late last year who confessed to me their concerns about President Barack Obama and his ability to put together a team capable of leading our country. The official reminded me that Obama, a young politician, doesn’t have a large or experienced staff and doesn’t have many “people.” I didn’t fully understand what that person meant until Obama took office. The current President does not have a bench of experienced individuals capable of filling the number of important cabinet and staff positions in the White House or even good people to research the potential applicants. How else do you explain the fact that so many of his cabinet choices have been criticized by the media for not paying their own taxes, releasing memos that labels veterans as potential terrorists and divulging important intelligence information that scored cheap political points at the expense of the security of our nation?

However, nothing tops the stupidity shown yesterday when the director of the White House Military Office, Louis E. Caldera, approved a flyover and photo op of Air Force One over Lower Manhattan. Terror is the first feeling that hits many New Yorkers after seeing Air Force One flying so low that it disappeared behind skyscrapers, looking eerily similar to the events that took place on 9/11. My first thought is that Caldera should resign.

I also believe that Robert Gibbs and the White House should reveal to the American people who was really responsible for ordering this boondoggle and who was flying on Air Force One. We deserve to know if some of these people were employees of the White House. If so, were they getting paid with taxpayer dollars to be on the plane? Were their campaign contributors on the plane? Many questions have been left unanswered.

The other infuriating part of this episode was that with all the major financial issues facing our nation, why did the White House decide that it was in the country’s best interest to get new publicity shots of Air Force One? Compounding the waste of taxpayer funds was the fact that this episode forced a number of employees who work in the busiest financial sector in the world out of their buildings and away from their jobs for an extended period of time. It would have been more acceptable if the President was on the plane surveying nearby Wall Street where the disaster of the Obama Administration is mounting.

Obama and the people he has surrounded himself with have certainly been a disappointment. How else can you describe the horrendous scene that unfolded yesterday?