Obama Still In Office, But Ex-Aides' Books And Claws Are Already Out

[Purveyor]

Former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was first to land a punch. Then former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in with a memoir that distanced herself from her president's foreign policy.

And Tuesday, former CIA chief and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, long a trusted advisor to Democratic presidents, released a book about his years in the administration in which he criticizes President Obama as a vacillating leader who often "avoids the battle."

All presidents have had in-house critics. But rarely has a president faced the degree of public criticism from former senior Cabinet members that Obama has this year.

The critiques are particularly notable because they have appeared while Obama is still in office, struggling with a world beset with crises. Panetta's "Worthy Fights" has appeared as the midterm election approaches, when criticism of Obama could boost his Republican opposition.

The chorus of Cabinet members' complaints "is really like no other case in the modern era," said Aaron David Miller, who worked as a diplomat for presidents of both parties and is a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Fairly or not, they are "reinforcing the image of a president who has pushed risk aversion in foreign policy too far," Miller said.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obama-critics-20141008-story.html

[AtomicKitten]

1. ugh .. phuck those backstabbing warmongers

Panetta, Gates, and Clinton

[KT2000]

2. hate to say this but

Democrats do this. I recall Carter's speech writer James Fallows wrote about him after he left employment - The Passionless President. It fed the anti-Carter efforts.

[TexasTowelie]

3. Who would buy the books if the authors didn't write that they disagreed with the president?

The point is that the right wing trolls salivate at the opportunity to point to any controversy regarding President Obama. The authors (with the prodding of the publishers) know that and focus on the differences with the president instead of the times of agreement because that is what people want to read.

Look at it this way--hopefully we will never have to see a similar situation occur with a Republican president because that will mean that the GOP president won two elections in a row.

[Principled Peter]

5. Exactly

For example, just look how Dick Morris turned on Bill Clinton. Standard Fucking Bullshit.

[JI7]

7. dick morris was always an asshole, a sleazy asshole, everyone in the white house

hated him .

[mattclearing]

4. Team of Rivals reaches its logical conclusion...

...as a circular firing squad.

[JI7]

6. what Gates said was not actually that bad and it was mostly positive

it was the media that plays up the negative and makes it worse than it is in order to get ratings . and gates himself may have wanted to put something in that could get attention for his book.

i think hillary is also thinking of her presidential run so i put it in that context.

but panetta is coming off really bad .