Posted by Erick Erickson
You remember Tom Kean, don’t you? He’s the former chairman of the 9/11 Commission — that same commission whose policies in its massive report Barack Obama guaranteed to implement.
Obama has not. In fact, one of the chief priorities of the 9/11 commission was the ability to effectively cross reference people on terrorist watch lists with passenger manifests for airlines. Hasn’t fully happened.
Commission Chairman Kean was on State of the Union with John King earlier today. He made some real news.
Keep in mind this guy is the guy Democrats and Republicans both trusted to lead the commission because he is one of those New England Republicans who eschews partisan politics.
According to Kean
“We had an administration which was not focused, as it should be, on terrorism and that’s understandable,” Kean said. “They were focused on health care and global warming and the economy. That’s very understandable. Secondly, we weren’t really focused on Yemen and the terrible things that are happening there. Now we are and that’s a good thing. And, thirdly, there were holes obviously and the [intelligence gathering] system wasn’t working well. We found out it wasn’t working well and the president understands it’s not working well and now we’re focused on fixing it.”
And that’s it precisely. And it is understandable. Obama has been focused on everything under the sun except keeping America safe. The Chairman of the 9/11 Commission recognizes this. The country no doubt recognizes this.
The question is: if Obama is too busy working on health care to take that 3 a.m. phone call, who is answering the phone?
