Tipsheet

Obama's Daily Intelligence Briefings: Not So "Daily"

Marc Thiesson reports on a Government Accountability Institute report (http://g-a-i.org/washington-post-president-misses-over-half-of-his-daily-intelligence-briefings/).  Based on examination of the President's daily schedule from the day Obama took office through June 2012, it appears that the Presidential Daily Briefing -- the time where he receives information about the most critical national security threats -- isn't actually so "daily." In fact, the President attended his Presidential (Not-)Daily Briefing less than half the time. 

During the President's first 1225 days in office, he attended the PDB 43.8% of the time.

But during 2011 and the first half of 2012, he attended only slightly more than 38% of the time.

Contrast this reality with the WaPo puff piece from earlier this year, which stated that one of the meeting's "regular participants" said that the meetings "show a president consistently participating in an exploration of foreign policy and intelligence issues." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/measuring-a-presidents-approach-on-foreign-policy/2012/01/14/gIQANYv13P_story.html)

Interestingly, foreign policy has always been an area of relatively strong voter approval for Obama (http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/obama-job-approval-foreign-policy).  Maybe, given the facts, that's because he gives it relatively little of his personal time and attention.