Aides said Obama at no point considered cutting short his trip, and they said he still had fun despite the unexpected crises. He played golf and basketball, went snorkeling and to the gym, and ate at his favorite Honolulu restaurant. His wife and children went to the beach, and his family spent time with a group of Chicago friends who traveled to Hawaii with them and with Oahu residents who have known Obama since childhood.As this Politico story notes, the Christmas Day bombing plot has shaken the Obama administration and his supporters, leaving the latter flummoxed. They can’t seem to understand the president’s clueless reaction, which verged on peevish resentment over the interruption to his vacation:
Over the course of five days, Obama’s reaction ranged from low-keyed to reassuring to, finally, a vow to find out what went wrong. The episode was a baffling, unforced error in presidential symbolism, hardly a small part of the presidency, and the moment at which yet another of the old political maxims that Obama had sought to transcend – the Democrats’ vulnerability on national security – reasserted itself.
What is remarkable is that there seems to be some mystery as to why Obama behaved as he did:
Explanations of Obama’s low-key reaction in the face of a terror attack include the characteristic caution of a president who resists jumping to conclusions and being pushed to action. They also include the White House’s belief – disproven repeatedly in 2009 – that it can evade the clichéd rules of politics, which include a suspicion of Democratic leadership on national security. Only Sunday night, when criticism of the system “worked” comment was not going away, did White House aides realize their approach was not working and that they needed to shift course.
