New WH Spin: Criticism of Taliban Swap is Really Obama ‘Hatred’
5 June 2014 / 257 Comments
Town Hall has some interesting commentary today on a story that was published in Politico. Of course, the fall back defense for any criticism the White House (namely, the President) receives is typically, ‘if you don’t like what Obama does, then you’re a racist.’
So, this scrambling to refute the uproar of criticism over Obama’s “prisoner swap” (letting five Taliban leaders out of Guantanamo Bay) comes as no surprise. The White House response boils down to this: “You just don’t like it because Obama did it, and you don’t like Obama….na na na na boo boo.”
Town Hall – This Politico story is highly revealing, from top to bottom. It paints a portrait of a White House reeling from a festering, self-inflicted political wound that’s flailing frantically to regain some measure of control over the narrative. It’s also a tad unnerving. This crew is so deep in the bunker that they can’t see a major mistake for what it is, preferring to take the mental exit ramp of chalking up the entire maelstrom to “hatred” of Obama — a claim that requires acute cognitive dissonance, for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment. A few choice excepts:
President Barack Obama’s Rose Garden appearance Saturday afternoon with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s parents was an attempt to humanize the prisoner swap to deflect potential criticism of letting five Taliban leaders out of Guantanamo Bay, White House aides say. It didn’t work. White House aides were aware Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been tagged a deserter, and that they would be grilled over not keeping Congress in the loop. But they figured people would be most outraged over the national security implications. The White House has been surprised by how much attention has remained on the questions about Bergdahl, from the circumstances of his disappearance to the wild beard his father grew while he was being held that’s even led to Bergdahl’s hometown canceling a celebration. All this, Obama aides say, is in their minds a proxy for the hatred toward the president. The new approach: Frame the criticism as another example of Republicans complaining about something just because Obama was the one to do it. White House aides and other liberal outlets are highlighting what they see as Republican hypocrisy, citing past quotes from GOP lawmakers calling for Bergdahl’s freedom.
Just a few days ago, White House aides were whispering to Chuck Todd that they were utterly shocked by the negative public reception to the Taliban swap; they had been expecting widespread “euphoria.” With soldiers who served with Bergdahl prior to his evident desertion coming out of the woodwork to douse the attempted jubilant whitewash with cold water, administration officials shifted to accusing them of “swift-boating” Bergdahl. Now Team Obama has moved on to claiming that they expected some significant backlash all along, but failed to anticipate the flash points and depth of the anger. Flummoxed, they’ve discarded the entire episode into their catch-all “Obama haters” bin, and are busily crafting a lefty media strategy to highlight Republican “hypocrisy.” Their big smoking gun on this point is a series of past statements from Republicans urging the safe return of Sgt. Bergdahl. See? They said they wanted Bergdahl home, and now that Obama’s achieved that amazing feat, they’re mad because he’s the one who did it.
Read more at
http://minutemennews.com/2014/06/new-wh-spin-criticism-taliban-swap-really-just-obama-hatred/#8ZHqTASJKpLXc7o4.99
