Thursday, October 11, 2012

Infallibility At What Cost?

I've been puzzling for several days as to why the President is keeping with the narrative about the You Tube video being the cause of the attack on the Benghazi consulate.

Nearly everyone has come to agree that the attack was an act of terror and the video had nothing to do with it.  Only those involved in the campaign seem to be forwarding the President's view.

Former U.N. Ambassador offered up the idea that the President so believes the elimination of bin Laden has al Qaeda on the run he refuses to consider any alternative.  Terrorism no longer exists as it once did.  Security levels in Libya were exactly what they should have been. He has made the middle east and the world safer.

Hub offers up another theory.  His campaign people have convinced him if he admits to what now seems to be the truth he'll be accused by the Republicans of being a flip flopper.

There may be some truth to that theory.  It's the more political of the two.  I'm more worried about the other, however.  He's showing me he thinks he's infallible.  Only his opinion is the correct one no matter what the facts may be.  He's also showing me he's delusional and that is potentially dangerous.

If everything that's said about the President has even a grain of truth it could become problematic.  If he's detached, if he's lazy, if he really can't be bothered with his security briefings and if he really believes he has conquered terrorism and what's now going on in the world is just a bump in his road there could be more severe problems ahead.

I understand party faithful on both sides of the aisle never wanting to see the forest for the trees.  They'll never change no matter what the circumstances.  It concerns me though, when it's the President.  The whole of politics goes to the art of governing.  Some leaders are dictatorial, some are willing to compromise but none should ever close their mind to the idea the truth may not be exactly the way they want to see it.

Those in his inner circle who perpetuate the myth so as not to displease him are doing neither him nor the country a favor. The truth may be an inconvenient one, but to insist on  trying to reframe it makes me question the motivation.

Is it the flip flop angle?  Possibly.  The battle is tight and not getting any easier.  Or has he deluded himself to the point the delusion to him is the truth? If that is the case he scares me.

Far more than his policies or the direction he's taken the country or the state it is in.  It scares me because the rest of the world sees this too, especially those who would do us continued harm.

What might he delude himself about next?  Our very existence could depend on what that might be and who would use it to their own advantage.

2 comments:

Margie's Musings said...

The president has access to information the challenger (and we) do not have. Time..and history...will tell if he is correct.

And now that an investigation is well underway, the president now believes that the attack in Benghazi was a terrorist attack. So the earlier CIA assessment was wrong. This he now knows.

Mari Meehan said...

And it took how long for it to occur to him he had, if true, bad information? Sorry. The CIA assessment isn't the only one he was privy to.