President Cipher

During the day yesterday, I’d read online of the bizarre impromptu joint press conference held by President Obama and former President Clinton after a meeting they’d had about how to save Obama’s bacon best sell the tax compromise. Apparently, a few minutes into the event, the President of the United States walked out to go to a party, leaving his Democratic predecessor in charge. Commenters online were generally aghast, but I figured it couldn’t be as bad as it sounded.

I was wrong. Watch this.

What the…??

Yo, Chief! You’re the President of the United States. The man in charge. You wanted the job!

And you just walk out of a press conference and let your stand-in handle it so you could go to a party? I doubt you could make yourself look any more feckless if you tried. At least Nixon had the decency to issue a formal resignation.

After watching that video, I had to check to see if Clinton had named his Cabinet, yet.

And speaking of former (and current?) President Clinton, I offer a few observations, based on the video clip:

  • Self-serving to the last, he says he didn’t like the securitization and reselling of sub-prime mortgages by Fannie and Freddie. Bill, it was your administration that fed the beast!
  • He also thinks the financial regulation bill is a good idea. Ummm… Sir? Who signed the deregulation legislation? Oh,yeah
  • Ten years out, and he’s still more on top of policy than Obama. You can just tell he misses the job*.
  • Obama must be thanking his lucky stars for the 22nd Amendment. I really do think, if he could run again, Bill would beat Obama in the 2012 primaries.

But, back to the man who is supposedly our president… Will anyone, foreign or domestic, take him seriously after this last week?

*And the interns. Especially the interns.

LINKS: Bryan Preston calls this a cry for Bubba-Wan, while Ed Driscoll thinks something weird is going on. Fausta calls it amateur hour.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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