Speechwriters as experts: it’s all about the words
Several people have mentioned Ben Rhodes in connection with the Benghazi debacle (just Google “Ben Rhodes Benghazi” and you’ll find plenty of the speculation). It’s not at all clear how much responsibility Rhodes had for the decisions during the Benghazi attack and the spin afterward. But what is clear is that Rhodes is one of Obama’s many advisors who lack anything remotely connected with expertise, except in the art of politics and speechwriting. Despite this, for Obama Rhodes doesn’t just write about foreign policy, he helps to make it.
Rhodes’ resume is singularly unimpressive, except after he was tapped by Obama to write for him and then to somehow be a foreign policy “expert.” Rhodes is hardly unique in the Obama administration for having this sort of background. The president seems to prefer to have people around him with even less experience and expertise than he has, which is saying something.
Other presidents have been inexperienced, but they have made efforts to choose experienced and knowledgeable people to make up for their own shortcomings. Obama does not believe he has any shortcomings, and so he does the opposite. For the most part, his advisors tend to have several characteristics in common besides their lack of substantive knowledge about their new fields: (1) they are good with words; (2) they are young; (3) they are focused on politics; (4) they revere Obama.
I’ve written before about this phenomenon, but we keep being reminded of it, and so it bears repeating: Obama prefers to be surrounded by politically astute sycophants who are in way over their heads and don’t realize it. That way he is less likely to be threatened or challenged.
So it occurs to me that maybe the simplest way to describe what happened in Benghazi is that, from start to finish, nearly everyone in charge and everyone who was a close and trusted advisor to those in charge was a political operative. Everyone. This of course includes Obama and Hillary Clinton, and all the supposed national security advisors such as Rhodes.
So they are a bunch of rank amateurs who literally have no idea what they were doing except in the political sense. And then when things went bad, they lied about it—using their words to try to get out of a jam, with the help of their friends in the MSM. It’s worked for them in the past, and might well work again.
I think it’s just as simple as that.
[NOTE: More about Ben Rhodes here [written in 2010]:
Who is Ben Rhodes and what qualifies him to be the Deputy National Security Adviser?
He was Barack Obama’s speechwriter (albeit, on foreign policy topics) during the campaign. He also played a role in the Cairo speech that presented a highly fictionalized history of both Islam (praised it for accomplishments that were not Islam’s) and Israel (a legacy of the Holocaust guilt).
Maybe he has a certain talent for fiction. After all, it was only a few years ago that “he was an aspiring fiction writer working on a novel called “The Oasis of Love” about a megachurch in Houston, a dog track and a failed romance.
Rhodes has enjoyed a rapid rise — because why?
Granted he is quite the wordsmith. That must qualify him for one of the top jobs involving our national security. It must have been a symbiotic relationship — a talented speechwriter with a talented speech reader.
Does Rhodes have any educational experience or military experience or, for that matter, international experience? No… on all three counts.
His bio, such as it is:
Rhodes had just earned a master’s degree in fiction writing from New York University when he was offered a job as a writer for Hamilton in 2002. A Manhattan native, Rhodes went on to write the Iraq Study Group Report and help draft policy recommendations for the 9/11 Commission, which Hamilton co-chaired.
Rhodes keeps in regular contact with Hamilton, who said Obama has thanked him “for making Ben available.”
Rhodes said Hamilton still reviews Obama’s major foreign policy addresses.
“We run most of the big foreign policy speeches by him,” he said. “Just kind of like, ”˜What do you think of this?'”
So far Obama’s Iraq speech has been the most meaningful for Rhodes. Aides credit him with the part where Obama spoke directly to the Iraqi people. Rhodes is also behind Obama’s telling the story of two Marines who died trying to stop a suicide bomber from entering an American military compound in Iraq.
During “the download” Obama had told Rhodes he wanted to end on the troops.
“I literally just spent a lot of time Googling,” Rhodes said.
From fiction writing (displayed so well in the Cairo speech and the Iraq Study Group) to Deputy National Security Adviser-and he is all of 32 years old. And he is the Deputy national Security Adviser with grave responsibilities for our security.]
[ADDENDUM: Stuart Schneiderman has more.]
I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.–From the Cairo speech.
Even Muslims, especially Muslims, get sick over that claptrap.
It’s noted in the Wiki article that Rhodes’ brother is the president of CBS News. I wonder how difficult it was for Cheryl Atkisson of CBS News to pursue her stellar reporting on the Benghazi debacle. She could probably write a longish essay just on that aspect of the reporting. It certainly helps explain why the MSM thought Benghazi was only a “Faux News” story not worth pursuing when one of their own is involved in the coverup.
Today is YOM YERUSHALAYIM (×™×•× ×™×¨×•×©×œ×™×) an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in June 1967.
The Muslims, in 1979, created an anti-Yom Yerushalayim called Al-Quds Day:
I call on all the Muslims of the world to select as Al-Quds Day the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan. . . I ask God Almighty for the victory of the Muslims over the infidels.–Ayatollah Khomeini
The result:
On 17 August 2012, millions of Iranians commemorated al-Quds Day, where they waved Palestinian flags, chanted “Death to Israel,” and burned Israeli and American flags.
Now, consider Samantha Powers glowing praise of this idiot, Ben Rhodes:
“He has a very high batting average in terms of prognostication. I don’t understand where Ben gets his ‘old man’ wisdom.”
Prognostication? PROGNOSTICATION!
Email Ben Rhodes and the Whitehouse a note saying Yom Yerushalayim.
Obama is afraid to hire beta males, so his team is the D-team.
First-rate people hire first-rate people. Second-rate people hire third-rate people. I’ve seen it in business, and now we’ve all seen it in the White House. This administration is filled with glib, third-rate mediocrities who know something about politics but nothing else. And they wouldn’t even excel at that if the MSM didn’t carry their water for them. January 2017 can’t come too soon.
Hillary and Obama have been promoted above their abilities and do not know their limitations. This is an inevitable outcome of affirmative action. If you focus on sex and race, you don’t get merit. What will happen when the focus is on their incompetence and lying? Their supporters will play the gender and race cards, and Hillary and Obama will go along with it. As Sheryl Longin noted recently, this is hate speech:
http://pjmedia.com/blog/david-sirota-and-the-definition-of-hate-speech/
“And they wouldn’t even excel at that if the MSM didn’t carry their water for them”
That’s the sad thing. Even with that being their only job, they still have to be carried by the press.
I wonder if Ben Rhodes wrote that speech Hillary gave on the tarmac that day while standing over those four caskets.
I’ve said it before and might say it again: I’ll never forget hearing her say the following:
“This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing do to with. It’s hard for the American people to make sense of that, because it is senseless, and it is totally unacceptable. …”
See the link and video over at Instapundit’s, from 16:25 to 17:45
A déjé vu moment — seems to be Ted Sorensen all over again.
But where do they get the content???
An original populariser of the global warming scare, Gunther Schwab (1904-2006) was a Nazi. Schwab’s Faustian novel, Dance with the Devil (1958), outlines many looming environmental emergencies including anthropogenic global warming. Appearing four years before Carson’s Silent Spring, Schwab’s novel warns:
“Every human being today is practically chronically poisoned with DDT.”
The novel also speaks of a “population bomb.” Regarding global warming, the novel’s villain postulates that rising human-induced atmospheric carbon dioxide levels:
“…will absorb and hold fast the warmth given out by the earth. This will cause the climate to become milder and the Polar ice will begin to thaw. As a result, there will be a rise in the level of the ocean and whole continents will be flooded.”
The speech writers have tofollow the plan
What plan??
The same plan from last century
Not new at all….
Only new to those that dont know
Obama spouting social justice
Blood n soil for volk immigrants
Prlmotting regressive (by that period) policies
Funded by billionaire nazi soros
Speech writers do what they are told
And what else??
Schwab, Haverbeck, and other fascists, like ecologist Herbert Gruhl, were instrumental in establishing the German Green Party. In 1983 the Greens dismissed their most august parliamentarian, Werner Vogel, after he was exposed as a former SA storm trooper and Third Reich Interior Ministry officer.
An early push to elevate Schwab’s global warming myth into a political campaign came in January 1986 when the German Physical Society published its doomsday report: Warning of an Impending Climate Catastrophe. The report formed the basis of a Der Spiegel cover story in August 1986 .
“This administration is filled with glib, third-rate mediocrities who know something about politics but nothing else.”
Agreed but I don’t think that’s a bug but a feature.
I think its a mistake to assume that Obama cares even the slightest about having ‘qualified’ people in his administration. Nor do I think that’s its primarily a matter of insecurity on his part.
What I’m struck by when listening and observing the members of his administration is the certainty. It’s the certainty of the true believer, of the ideologue.
The political skills they exhibit are of mixed caliber, just as frequently as they ‘hit it out of the park’ they have events blow up in their face. The only reason why it isn’t more obvious is of course because of the MSM’s support and dissimulation.
IMO, political ‘qualifications’ are the only criteria that Obama considers in ALL of his appointments, including the military.
Nor is that, from Obama’s perspective, an error. ALL Obama cares about is using his power and political leverage to “fundamentally transform” this country. He doesn’t care about any other aspect of being President. Including protecting American citizens from threats both foreign and domestic.
Far as he’s concerned, that’s just “America’s chickens coming home to roost”.
See this comment by David French at the Corner.
Yes, that’s what military and foreign service do: They stand “on the Wall” and willfully risk their lives for the rest of us. The least we can (must) do is assure them that if they ever need our help we will provide it; that we will never abandon them.
Which is exactly what Hillary and O did.
Neo, I think you’ve got it about right. These people are something. They’ve lied so much that virtually anything they do or say will be a contradiction of themselves. Which has reduced them to denial of the past. Well this week should be a barn burner, but I’ve been wrong before.
David French references this article which answers the most pressing question to patriotic Americans of whether or not there was a failure to help during the attack:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/347608/benghazi-do-i-say-or-i-do
Every aspect of the MSM narrative about BHO is fiction. If the narrative develops major cracks that are impossible to ignore we will see monumental temper tantrums, pouting, and much finger pointing from within this den of poisonous toads.
Parker,
You’ve got it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxh4eSEyVAk
if you can stand the execrable Andrea Mitchell.
but Chaffetz does a tolerable job.
Andrew McCarthy does his usual awesome fact giving on the ARB “fix is in” because it was conducted by Pickering and Mullen.
http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2013/05/07/clintons-republican-guard/?singlepage=true
Evil will do what evil is. There’s no point expecting otherwise. This is no Hollywood violent fantasy tale.
” “fix is in” because it was conducted by Pickering and Mullen.”
With few exceptions DC is a sewer of whores and thieves. No wonder they want our guns and to send us to Gitmo. http://tinyurl.com/co6gvdp BTW, my apologies to run of the mill whores and thieves who by comparison to DC make an honest living.
@parker, at least a run-of-the-mill whore provides a service for the fee. With DC pols and bureaucrats, we just pay without getting anything in return.
@Geoffrey B, I don’t believe that 0bama cares for a second about the competence of any of his appointees or staff. Blind loyalty to the image and person of “the 0ne” is the only qualification.
waltj,
No doubt that’s the primary condition of inclusion but not I believe, the only condition. They also have to share his ideology and his view of how to implement and achieve the fundamental transformation of America.
Neo’s earlier post “Why Now?” keeps gnawing through my head.
She asked, “So I understand why it took so long. But if so, why are they finally able to speak now? What has changed?”
Things take their own time. Earthquakes happen on a geological schedule. Economics happen but not quite as quickly as most expect. And politics?
There has been an increasing level of information of what and who Obama is, which to many is not clear or understood, mainly your low information voter. Countering the information is a certain amount of “forgiveness,” a license to achieve the grand and good purposes which they believe Obama intends.
It takes some time for the outcome of those forces. Call it a social metabolism while the digestion of the material renders the material into energy. But the good news is that a certain amount of people, again, mainly your low information voter, might be tending towards a new decision.
Is the populace reaching a threshold for corrective action? Some facts present regardless of how the media spins them. Obama and his administration are great criticizers, great expostulators, but they’re not good rulers. They are terrible governors. How long can the media hide failure? ARe the low information voters thinking things they can’t even express?
The problem with this theory is how does that translate into an actual Capital Hill investigative process?
Probably doesn’t. In actuality there are three men who are going to testify who were prevented by insiders from giving their testimony. Now they get their chance. But I hope to some extent the efforts by all those connected to the five congressional committees is due a underlying change we can’t see.
I pray enough information has been metabolized by our country to encourage it to rid itself of parasites.
Watch the hearings courtesy of HuffPo!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/benghazi-hearing_n_3236256.html?1368026037
Sweet baby Jesus, that’s all the qualifications it takes?!
Oh, yeah, he had Hamilton to thank. It’s all who you know, and not at all what you know.
Surely we’ve had a president before who surrounded himself with mediocre inexperienced sycophants. Did we? I can’t recall, but if we did and we as a country survived it, perhaps we’ll get through this too. Otherwise, it’s awfully hard to envision what it will take to repair the damage done by this administration.
,
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25 years in management and I learned early on that bad managers always hire people that have similar skill sets but who are less capable.
Good managers hire people that have different backgrounds, advanced skills that the manager lacks, more experience in some areas, etc.
Excellent analysis, Neo. I have been interested in how little what he says seems to matter to Obama. He doesn’t care if what he says is false, he may contradict it in another speech a few days later. The words are designed for the political impact of the moment, and right and true because Obama spake them. It’s more than odd. He has said “I have a gift” in reference to his own speaking ability, which means that he can say whatever he wants and it will be accepted and right because he said it? Does he even know that he lies?
George W., who did not speak easily, would comb over the words from his speechwriters, altering and changing to get the words just right – because he believed what a president of the United States said mattered – and it was imperative that he take the greatest of care to be truthful and accurate.
So the people Obama selected for his first term were too capable, so he’s ratcheting it back a little more for the second term? He has already gotten rid of the Army’s top 3 generals, and his cabinet selections this time around seem even worse. Putin just kept Kerry cooling his heels for 2 hours, to indicate the level of respect.
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