Attacks on journalists by the president's staff: a major sign of a dangerous cult of personality....
September 22, 2011 -- Obama attack machine targets Ron Suskind...
Ron Suskind's new book, "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President," which details the many leadership problems in the Obama White House, has earned the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist the wrath of the Obama propaganda machine. The White House has launched a series of vicious attacks on Suskind, accusing him of plagiarism, fabulism, and mis-quoting sources. And to Obama's rescue has come Karl Rove, who has accused Suskind of mis-quoting him in previous books, including the 2004 book about the Bush-Cheney White House, "The Price of Loyalty," which mainly dealt with the shoddy treatment that Bush's Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, received from the likes of Dick Cheney and Rove.
This editor spoke to Suskind while he was writing "The Price of Loyalty." Suskind was spot on in his book and the quotes attributed to Rove about how the White House could create its own reality and if they didn't like the outcome, they could change the reality in thirty minutes because of the control they had on the media, sums up Rove's spin doctoring. Rove's media machinations combined the traditions of Joseph Goebbels and Rupert Murdoch.
I told Suskind that what he was hearing about the Bush White House was exactly what I was hearing from sources inside the Bush administration. It is ironic that current White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer used Rove's criticism of "The Price of Loyalty" and other Suskind books critical of Bush to hammer the author over "Confidence Men." It is just further proof that there is really not a dime's worth of difference between the Bush and Obama administrations.
The Obama White House is furious that Suskind was able to get former White House communications director Anita Dunn to admit that the initial Obama White House of chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, National Economic Council director Larry Summers, and political adviser David Axelrod was a font of male chauvinism. Dunn is quoted: "this place would be in court for a hostile workplace… Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women." Suskind produced the tape of his interview of Dunn for The Washington Post to counter the White House's and Dunn's claims that she was misquoted. I believe Dunn was referring to a different sort of male hostility in the workplace, not the sort commonly encountered by women from the typical male chauvinist boors. But more on that later.
The White House has pointed to some small factual errors, such as Pfeiffer being referred to as a White House deputy press secretary, Summers having to obtain Senate confirmation as Obama's chief economics adviser, and Axelrod described as Obama's 2008 campaign manager. Minutiae to be sure but in an age when publishers spend very little time and effort on editing, such errata can be expected and it can be fixed post-publication by a simple errata sheet, something commonly found in books by major authors published decades ago.
Coming on the heels of the Suskind book is a report by the website Gawker.com and an anticipated story in The New York Times about Obama's suffering from clinical depression and that he is toying with the idea of not running for a second term. Now, what was one of the first media outlets to report on Obama's depression and ambivalence about a second term? From WMR, October 11, 2010:
"WMR has learned that Obama's paranoia and severe depression over his correct belief that certain interests are out to get him have been mitigated by First Lady Michelle Obama and domestic policy adviser Valerie Jarrett. Mrs. Obama has been telling Obama that he should forgo a second term because he is "too good for the American people" and he has a future role on a 'bigger world stage.' It is also being reported from White House sources that Hillary Clinton plans to run against Obama in 2012, something WMR previously reported. The reports that Obama has offered Mrs. Clinton the vice presidential position in 2012 is both an attempt at defusing the reports that Clinton, backed by her husband Bill Clinton, are planning a primary challenge to Obama and an attempt to send a message to Biden, who is considered by Obama to be working with the forces arrayed against him.
On August 27, 2010, WMR reported on the Obama-Clinton intrigue: 'Informed sources in Washington, DC have told WMR that President Obama has been personally told by a delegation of top Democratic Party financiers that unless he radically changes his economic policies they will bolt from him for another Democratic candidate in 2012. The Democratic money moguls conveyed the warning to Obama in Martha's Vineyard, where the president and his family are spending their vacation. There are various factions within the Democratic Party that see different scenarios to bail out what many Democrats see as an administration in deep trouble with the electorate. One would have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton move up to replace Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket with Senator John Kerry becoming Secretary of State. However, WMR has been told that Clinton personally loathes Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and may not want to be part of the 2012 president ticket playing second fiddle to Obama. WMR has also learned that Obama's reported 'severe narcissism' has a number of his cabinet officials and top Democratic fundraisers perplexed. Obama's refusal to change course because of his ego was discussed at the recent annual Bohemian Grove conclave in northern California, which brings together influential businessmen and politicians from both parties. Top U.S. business leaders openly complained about Obama's economic policies, with some stating that Obama is, for the business community, the worst president in anyone's lifetime. They also complained about White House gatekeepers like Emanuel and policy advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod who are preventing access to the Oval Office."
WMR independently stands by our original reporting on the dysfunctionality of the Obama White House but welcomes the vindication of our reporting in Suskind's new book and the reported New York Times investigation of Obama's mental depression.
Obama White House "Boy's Club"
The Obama "boy's club" that was hostile to female officials in the White House should come as no surprise, considering that Larry Summers, Obama's former chief economic adviser, has his own history of blatant sexism. From The Washington Post, February 22, 2006: "Lawrence H. Summers, the president of Harvard University, announced yesterday that he will resign his post, bringing to close a stormy tenure in which the former Treasury secretary made impolitic remarks about women, alienated many black professors and repeatedly clashed with the faculty at America's most prominent university." Yes, that was the very same Larry Summers who Obama brought into his "boy's club" and top echelon of White House advisers.
As to the type of male chauvinism encountered by female officials of the Obama White House team, WMR has reported extensively on the connections of both Obama and former chief of staff and now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to gay social networks in Chicago, including uptown's "Man's Country" gay bath house, where Obama and Emanuel both had membership. What Dunn, Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer, both of whom have resigned from the administration, and other women likely encountered was an anti-female attitude from cantankerous gay males in the administration, including from Obama, Emanuel, and, as previously reported by WMR, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither, who Suskind has written, called the shots on protecting Citicorp from restructuring by the government after the "too big to fail" bailout of Wall Street by Obama.
Female officials in the Obama White House would not have been immune to Emanuel's foul mouth and intemperate behavior. The Chicago Tribune has recently reported that Emanuel threatened to burn down the north Chicago home of Illinois state senator Greg Harris for not supporting a bill in the state legislature that would emaciate pension guarantees for Chicago city workers. Emanuel's manners around women are not much better. Emanuel recently cursed out and pointed his finger at Chicago Teacher's Union president Karen Lewis, something the foul-mouthed and angry erratic gay mayor, the former ballet dancing and leotard-wearing son of an Israeli terrorist, did to Chicago Channel 5's Mary Ann Ahern earlier this year.
And then there was the infamous scene last year when a naked Emanuel poked his finger in the chest of an equally naked Representative Eric Massa in the shower of the House of Representatives gym over Massa's failure to support Obama's budget proposal. Perhaps Emanuel got confused and thought he was in the shower at Man's Country and not in the House of Representatives where a little more decorum is expected from a White House chief of staff.
As far as the White House attacks on Suskind, which have not yet apparently grown into personal threats, all I can say is for Ron to hang in there and not be intimidated by a bunch of crazed lickspittles for an incompetent president. As far as the Obama White House threats are concerned, it is merely a question of mind over matter: "I don't mind and they don't matter."...September -25, 2011 -- A depressed president hooked on Google "vanity searches"...
WMR has learned from government sources with close contacts inside the White House that media reports that The New York Times is developing a story on President Obama suffering from clinical depression are correct and that Obama is fixated on how the media, including certain web sites, view his presidency.
WMR has previously reported on Obama's narcissistic personality and how it has adversely affected his leadership capabilities as president. Obama's day usually begins by his conducting "vanity searches" on Google to see how he is being treated by both the main stream media and political blogs. When he encounters negative articles, Obama flies of the handle in a rage punctuated by the use of foul language, according to sources close to the White House. Obama is reportedly totally obsessed with how the media is covering him.
Obama's three major interlocutors between his administration and Democratic Party officials and the Congress -- chief of staff Bill Daley, First Lady Michelle Obama, and political adviser Valerie Jarrett -- have concluded the best current course of action is to keep Obama in the environment he handles best: the campaign trail where he is the focus of adulation by swooning crowds.
WMR has been told by informed sources that when he first read our accounts of his background with the CIA, including his employment with Business International Corporation, and the CIA histories of his mother and grandparents, Obama flew into a rage -- the possible source for three independent reports that indicated that the White House wanted this editor "dead."
Privately, some White House officials have expressed fear to Democratic Party officials and elected Democratic office holders around the nation that Obama is on the verge of a mental breakdown. The White House officials believe that only by putting Obama in front of adoring crowds in a carefully-orchestrated campaign mode can they buy time for the administration. However, the White House sources have expressed grave doubts about Obama's ability to maintain his composure when faced with growing criticism. Their worst fear is that Obama will suffer from a public breakdown, sealing the end of his re-election chances and dooming the down-ticket electoral prospects for the Democratic Party in 2012 and beyond.
When faced with impeachment during his final months in office, Richard Nixon, who also suffered from depression and was drinking heavily and taking anti-depressants, opted to resign from office in August 1974. Nixon's predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, depressed over the failure of his Vietnam War strategy, opted to forego his re-election campaign in March 1968.
Observers of White House politics have pointed to Daley using the term "I" when he is discussing the administration's policies, an indication that Daley is increasingly calling the shots on major policy issues in the White House. However, Daley's increased profile has resulted in growing friction between him and Jarrett and the First Lady.
Obama is known to search the Internet for stories about himself before he receives the President's Daily Brief from top intelligence officials. Woe be it to any intelligence briefer who reports on information obtained from open sources. Obama, who, in many cases has already read such accounts, will let loose with a barrage of abusive epithets, yelling, at times, "I already know that you stupid motherfucker!"
Ron Suskind's new book, "Confidence Men," which mainly concerns the dysfunctional nature of the Obama White House, has resulted in a full-court press being directed by the White House and its spin doctors against the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
When asked whether one or more over-zealous White House aides may have taken Obama's rage at this editor for the reports about the CIA backgrounds of Obama and his family as a reason to convey a personal threat, the answer was that, given the current nature of the White House staff, such a scenario was more than likely. We have also been told that Obama was well-aware of this editor's recent foray into Indonesia in search of details about his and his family's time in that country....
