Obama White House ‘Blindsided’ By Israeli Gaza Invasion [Report]

Is anyone minding the store in Washington?

The federal government employs thousands of employees to monitor domestic and international issues, which includes NSA surveillance, yet the Obama administration apparently keeps getting taken by surprise by developing events.

In fact, Team Obama often claims it only learns about various flashpoints and controversies by watching them unfold in the news media.

As far as the Gaza ground invasion by the Israeli Defense Force is concerned, ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl reported the following:

The White House seems to have been blindsided by the Israeli invasion. Just yesterday, the president came into the White House briefing room, and before the cameras, said that he was working with other world leaders to get a cease fire… just hours before the invasion, a spokesperson for the State Department expressed optimism that the ceasefire would take hold. Now, of course, you have an escalation, not a ceasefire …

The president has previously asserted that, for example, he found out about the VA hospital scandal on the news. Likewise with the IRS Tea Party targeting scandal and the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal that resulted in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and many others.

Similarly, on Capitol Hill today, a high-ranking Justice Department official testified that his agency — which is supposedly investigating IRS misconduct in the IRS scandal — only learned about Lois Lerner’s lost emails “from press accounts.”

As Mediate observed, despite being allegedly blindsided by the situation in Gaza or confronted by news of the Malaysia airliner shot down over Ukraine today, the president’s campaign fundraising schedule continues without interruption:

… President Obama has faced the same kind of criticism [as George. W. Bush] in regards to his reaction to big events as well. But in Mr. Obama’s case, there’s an unsettling and dumbfounding pattern that has clearly emerged: The need to attend fundraisers as important events — the kind of events that call for the President to return to the White House Situation Room for monitoring and assessment of said events while being debriefed by military brass and talking with our allies, including Israel — unfold in real time. But as we’re seeing here in New York right now, the President is headlining the first of two fundraisers to take on the real enemy to America’s interests: Republicans… Add it all up, and one thing is clear: nobody at the top is home. And for no good reason whatsoever… “

The president reportedly has appeared at 339 big-ticket fundraisers for fellow Democrats so far in his term in office.

Some political pundits have argued that Obama’s disengagement from emergency situations like the illegal immigration border surge in favor of partying with celebrities and other one-percenters suggests that he has “checked out” of the presidency.

On the subject of the news media, how do you think the media would react if George W. Bush was attending fundraisers during two international crises plus another one at the U.S. southern border?

[top image credit: Matt H. Wade]