It's All Hillary's Fault

The New York Times is reporting that the mixed messages received from the White House on the Egyptian crisis were the fault of the State Department:

“A president who himself is often torn between idealism and pragmatism was navigating the counsel of a traditional foreign policy establishment led by Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Biden and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, against that of a next-generation White House staff who worried that the American preoccupation with stability could put a historic president on the wrong side of history.”

Translation: It's all Hillary's fault that Obama is now being criticized for his lack of leadership during the 18 days of protests in Egypt that finally resulted in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The Times neglects to remind readers that Hillary has been noticeably absent during the whole Egyptian crisis, surfacing only after the crisis seemed to be resolved, spouting generic phrases regarding how America will stand up for democracy. The Times also neglected to mention that Secretary of State, Hillary, had been sent on an urgent mission to Haiti as Egypt entered its second week of protests.

The mixed messages emanating from the White House started on Day 3 of the protests. The only "official" word from the White House was when Joe Biden stated that Mubarak should "not step down." Oops...

As Obama tried to figure out what was going on in Egypt , White House spokesman Gibbs twittered, briefly, "..it's not for me or our government to determine" whether Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should leave office.

After Mubarak appeared to agree to resign the next day, the Obama administration stepped in and took the credit. Another oops. It appeared that Mubarak wasn't really resigning. But now Obama was committed.

After another 10 days, while Obama sat on the fence and tried to determine which side would best support his own political future, the events unfolded and eventually resolved, with a complete lack of input and/or leadership from the United States .

In point of fact, President Mubarak allegedly lambasted Obama during a private telephone call for his wavering stance and inability to commit publicly to either side.

With the dust now starting to settle, Obama is frantically casting about for a fall guy. Or girl. With the help of one of his most loyal allies, the New York Times, the media template is forming. It was all the fault of the State Department. Ergo, it's Hillary's fault. President Obama, as usual, is completely blameless. Take that, Hillary.

It seems apparent that the buck no longer stops with Obama. We now have a president who is more skilled at passing the buck than dealing with a 3 a.m. moment. This is scary stuff. What's even scarier is the fact that I now have to acknowledge that there are even worse presidential candidates than Hillary Clinton.