The problem for Obama originates with Obama himself: His policies and rhetoric since the day he became president have created an illusion that we don’t have a terror problem. He and his team even have gone as far as to remove "war on terror” from the White House lexicon, replacing it with "overseas contingency operation."
What we want from our president is gravity and leadership. The first hint of a deficit in those attributes came in November, when Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan murdered a dozen fellow soldiers and wounded 20 more at Fort Hood.
It took days for Obama to react; when he finally spoke publicly, he did several "shout-outs" to the crowd before even mentioning the tragedy.
“I cringed,” admits the Democratic strategist, who specializes in messaging.
Typically, Americans unify behind a president when a threat to the country occurs. Thus, it is politically very risky for Republicans to criticize Obama's leadership in this area.
Yet Americans are not completely foolish; they can figure things out for themselves, and they don’t need Republicans pointing out the obvious.
“I suspect that it is more likely in the coming days that there will be a push toward unity by both parties and that the blame-casting will subside,” Rozell speculated.
“We can unify behind this in Congress. It is one thing that both parties agree on, leadership and accountability in keeping us safe,” assures U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
Hoekstra, however, is very critical of the White House for its lack of cooperation in examining how the government has failed on such incidents as Fort Hood. It makes him and other critics wonder if the administration is throwing up roadblocks because it is concerned that the story line will become "asleep at the switch."
Obama's latest admission that the system did not work has helped, to some degree, to reassure people that he understands the gravity of the situation and is committed to dealing with terrorists.
Yet as Toby Harnden, editor of the UK Telegraph, quipped: “Obama may have rather smugly given himself a ‘B+’ for his 2009 performance but he gets an ‘F’ for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants.”