8
5
3
Then I blamed some of the Robert Rubin banksters he surrounded himself with-- Lawrence Summers and Peter Orszag. They're gone, but Geithner's still there and Obama hired more of the same. But I don't get the feeling that they are his closest advisors. They don't advise him much on Afghanistan and Libya and the BP spill and Japan.
The Washington Post reports, "Members of his staff describe Obama as wary of outsiders and reluctant to widen his inner circle. As one of his advisers bluntly put it, the president "doesn't like new people."
So it comes down to "who is left?" Who are the close advisors to Obama who have failed to advise him, because I don't think "allowed," as in, "allowed him to make such bad choices," is the right word, who have failed to influence him to be a better man, a better president, a leader of any kind.
Who has sat there watching him fail as a leader and become a man who breaks promises?
Who has encouraged him to be weak and ineffective by giving up negotiation possibilities by offering concessions before the negotiations start, seemingly always punting on the first down?
Who has failed to have the courage to encourage President Obama to take tough stands?
You may be thinking that there may not be any people to blame. It may be that Obama is just that way all by himself, or even in spite of the close advisors in his life and work. It's a tough assessment to digest. I resist believing that Obama could go where he's gone all on his own. Could Obama really be that weak, that incompetent?
It's easier to speculate that he has been surrounded by several or influenced by one or two very close advisors who are failing him and the country with their weak, cowardly, sell-out positions.
There are a handful of people who come to mind who could be in that position-- David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Valerie Jarret and Joe Biden seem to comprise his closest long term circle.
I don't know who, or why, but it's a question, perhaps a conversation that seems worth having. Your thoughts?
