Forget the chilling, pre-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton campaign commercials forcing you to ask yourself if you believed that Barack Obama could be tough in a crisis. This is not about who you would trust to be President and Commander-in-chief at 3:00 in the morning. This is about security at the White House during a Presidential State Dinner. How did Tareq and Michaele Salahi gain entry to the White House and access to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama?
This is not an incident to brush away casually. Any number of books, TV shows and movies can described how even beautiful women can kill. Magnetometers will not pick up C-4 rolled into a tampon -- sufficient quantity to take out the President from 20 feet away. Along with his wife, possibly his children and who knows of how many others.
No, this is not an example of the 'openness' of the Obama administration, any attempt to spin it that way is destined to compound the scathing press regarding the incident. It happened in the White House, a building that should be as close to sacrosanct in terms of security as any building could possibly be.
Yes, Rush, sorry to pre-empt your shtick. I know. "If Obama can't protect himself and his family in the White House, how we can we trust him to protect us against Al-Qaeda, thousands of miles away in Afghanistan?" Ann Coulter, Michele Malkin, Bill O'Reilly, Congresswoman Bachman, Sarah Palin, et al, I can already hear your comments.
Can we continue to have faith in the Napolitano, Head of Homeland Security, and whoever heads the Secret Service?
Sadly, this is not a partisan issue. All sides are appalled by this transgression.
Congressman Peter King, ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee probably best expressed what most Americans must be thinking.
"Obviously, somebody dropped the ball. I mean, you're talking about the president of the United States and the vice president and a powerful world leader, the prime minister of India.
The fact that they went through the magnometer is incidental. They could have had anthrax on them. They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table."
The President must get out in front of this instantly and announce a top-to-bottom White House security review, concentrating specifically on Secret Service procedures. He should be outraged. President Obama should state that the review will be completed before Christmas and he personally will report back to the country on its findings. In this way, he stands a chance to own the story....instead of being smeared by it.
The efficacy or lack thereof of security at the White House could damage his possibilities for re-election as much as continued unemployment....because his opponents will spin it that he has been 'too busy' to focus on "really important things", and, worse, that he does not respect his own house...
Maybe we should consider expanding our working relationship with Israel and negotiate a deal with them where we would sub-contract the services of their Mossad to work jointly with our Secret Service to protect the President and the first family from possible terrorist attacks.