White House: Obama Conducting Reign of Terror
By Wayne Madsen, Wayne Madsen Report (WMR)
President Obama was urged by the few White House insiders from whom he still
takes advice to leave the country on his ten-day Asian trip, his longest
trip abroad since becoming president, in order to not inflict any more
damage to the Democratic Party in the wake of one of the worst electoral
defeats for the party of an incumbent president in recent history. According
to sources close to the White House, who put themselves in great danger by
even talking to members of the media, the plans to have Obama leave for a
visit to India, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan are an attempt
to get Obama out of the country while top Democrats can sort through the
political disaster created for the party by Obama’s increasingly
detached-from-reality presidency.
Virtual political guerrilla warfare has broken out between Obama’s inner
circle on one hand and senior Democratic officials, including outgoing House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party strategist James Carville, former
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, and, behind-the-scenes,
Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton, on the other.
Top Democrats are still reeling from Obama’s bizarre behavior at a
$7500-a-plate fundraiser at a stately mansion at Brown University in Rhode
Island on October 25. The fundraiser, organized by the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee, was supposed to highlight Democratic Party
unity. However, while Obama endorsed Democratic House candidate David
Cicilline for outgoing Representative Patrick Kennedy’s seat, the president
failed to endorse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio over
Republican-turned-independent former Senator Lincoln Chafee. Obama’s lack of
an endorsement for a Democrat over a former Republican prompted Caprio to
tell a radio show host that Obama "could take his endorsement and really
shove it as far as I’m concerned."
Later that day, Obama briefly appeared at the fundraiser at Brown
University, where Democratic loyalists paid $7500 to hear Obama speak, but
departed after only twenty minutes, telling the assembled guests that he had
to go back to the White House to "tuck in my daughters, walk the dog, and
’scoop the poop.’" The Democratic faithful were appalled and shocked at
Obama’s quick departure and one of the three reasons he gave for it: to
scoop up dog turds as if the President of the United States actually
performs such tasks with a phalanx of White House staff and Secret Service
agents at his disposal.
Vice President Biden knows too well about Obama’s lack of attention to his
daily tasks of being president. The details of the fiasco at Brown soon were
conveyed to Biden by his two old Democratic Senate colleagues from Rhode
Island: Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse. Biden was not amused about Obama’s
dissing of the Democrats in Rhode Island. A week later, Chafee defeated
Caprio for the Rhode Island governorship, thanks largely to Obama’s
less-than-neutral stance in cutting a secret deal to support Chafee against
Caprio.
White House leaks about the ineffectiveness of Obama’s presidency are
expanding beyond the revelations attributed to a former high-level Obama
administration insider and which have been reported by a blogger named
"Ulsterman." Some White House staffers have described a "reign of terror" in
the White House over continued leaks and a troika of leadership that is
making decisions without any input from the president. The troika reportedly
consists of First Lady Michelle Obama, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett,
and the president’s mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, who resides in the White
House.
Not to be deterred, some White House staffers have sought out journalists
and have arranged to meet them at nearby Starbuck’s cafes to discretely
convey to them inside information about the current disarray within the
Obama administration. Some staffers have personally borne the brunt of
Obama’s temper and witnessed his extreme narcissistic behavior. WMR has also
learned from White House sources that Obama is taking prescription anxiety
medication.
Vice President Biden, under intense pressure from some Democratic Party
officials and Cabinet members to invoke Article 25, Section 4 of the
Constitution and have Obama temporarily or permanently removed as president
because of his mental incapacity to fulfill his constitutional oath as
president is reluctant to take such drastic action. Biden feels that the
country would "become unglued" after such action and he doesn’t want to be
the one who would be responsible for "picking up the pieces," according to a
source who works within Biden’s office.
Some staffers have said on deep background that the revelations by the
ex-White House official to "Ulsterman" are not even half of the story about
what is actually occurring in the White House. However, Biden and other
Democratic and administration officials believe that if Obama were to
display some of the same reckless behavior publicly as many White House
personnel have witnessed privately, there may be wide support for enactment
of the provisions of the 25th Amendment.
Such a public display by Obama that could trigger succession action might
involve a public outburst, including the use of foul language or a statement
that Obama believes there is a conspiracy against him. On October 5, Obama
was addressing Fortune magazine’s "Most Powerful Women" summit in
Washington, DC. During the middle of Obama’s speech, the presidential seal
fell off the podium. Publicly, Obama took the incident as a joke, but WMR
has learned from White House insiders that Obama went on a tirade after the
incident, accusing White House staffers of purposely not anchoring the seal
to the podium. The White House supplies all the podiums and seals at all
presidential addresses and the seal is usually well-anchored with four
screws affixed to the podium. Obama reportedly "freaked out" and accused
White House staffers of engaging in a conspiracy against him. The
presidential tirade over such a trivial matter was not lost on senior
administration officials who have witnessed Obama’s lackadaisical behavior
during the consideration of much weightier issues, for example, the war in
Afghanistan.
Although some observers believe African-Americans would react negatively to
the invocation of the 25th Amendment, WMR has learned that members of the
Congressional Black Caucus would reluctantly go along with such a move. Many
in their ranks, including outgoing House Judiciary Committee chairman John
Conyers (D-MI) were outraged over Obama’s lack of interest in Haiti after
that nation’s devastating earthquake. For many black caucus members, it was
their first indication that there was something very wrong with Obama and
his grasp of reality.
With Obama intent on running for re-election and seriously considering
sending White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) to replace former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the potential
Democratic challengers to Obama in 2012 are beginning to stir. WMR has
learned that former DNC chairman Howard Dean is seriously considering a
challenge to Obama as is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will
reportedly depart Foggy Bottom after Defense Secretary Robert Gates leaves
his position, possibly in January.
Several top Democrats consider Obama’s chances to keep the White House in
2012 as slim and they find it fanciful that White House policy adviser David
Axelrod is moving back to Chicago to work on Obama’s 2012 re-election
campaign, an effort many Democratic officials find a "fool’s errand."
Obama also is disengaged from the plight of his former Senate Democratic
colleagues in the wake of their near loss of the Senate with a much-reduced
majority. There is pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to step
down as Majority Leader. However, Charles Schumer (D-NY), who has been
mentioned as a replacement, reportedly has let it be known that he will not
carry Obama’s water as Majority Leader and may not want the job after all.
The Majority Whip is Dick Durbin (D-IL) but he is seen as part of the Obama
Chicago Mafia and almost every Democratic senator agrees on one thing: they
do not want Durbin as their Majority Leader. Obama, the titular head of the
Democratic Party, has refused to weigh in with any effective leadership as
congressional Democrats pick up the pieces and lick their wounds.
Meanwhile, a team of ex-CIA officers are traveling the globe assembling a
dossier of documents on Obama’s past, including his education, passport,
travel, and residency records. The team has scoured Kenya, Indonesia,
Pakistan, and other countries collecting documents that are not already
maintained in the CIA’s own files on Obama’s past. There is a possibility,
according to WMR’s sources, that any "smoking gun" documents may be released
while Obama is in Asia in order to elicit a public and, perhaps, irrational
enough response from the president to prompt the public to begin raising
questions about Obama’s suitability for office. Such an incident would make
it easier for Biden to begin the succession process that was previously
considered when President Richard Nixon was drinking heavily and taking
prescription medication during the final days of his administration, twice
during the Ronald Reagan administration � after the attempted assassination
and in 1987 when he demonstrated early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, and
during the Bill Clinton administration, when Clinton’s self-destructive
sexual antics had Vice President Al Gore considering taking similar steps.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and
syndicated columnist. He has written for several renowned papers and blogs.
