President Obama Claims "Ultimately the buck stops with me."

I watched the speech, and came away... unimpressed.




This isn't the whole speech... but, really - what's the point? The "money quote" is there, and that's the part that's supposed to make our American hearts go pitty-pat.

"Moreover, I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me. As President, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. And when the system fails, it is my responsibility."

I'm seeing a lot of responses to this that range from overly positive ("Jeebus tapdancing crispos, it sure does feel nice to have an adult in the White House", from Library Grape) to grudging approval ("Obama did well by stating the obvious very firmly, although it would have been better to hear that kind of approach on December 25th, not January 7th.", from Ed Morissey at HotAir.)

Personally, I'm with Ace on this one:

He dodged responsibility for a week. He minimized it and claimed it was just an independent actor, unconnected to anything bigger, even when it was pretty firmly established it was Al Qaeda.

I don't think he made this statement because he believes it, or because he wanted to. I think he made this statement because polling and focus-groups told him that if he didn't make it, he was risking an even bigger loss in his poll numbers than anything he'd seen before.

I will give Obama credit for one thing I noticed... He showed more empathy and feeling in this speech than in some others. Did it win me over? Nope. I think he's just becoming more skilled as an actor.

"I'm not really a President who will keep my country safe from terrorists... I just play one on TV."
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UPDATE: Linked at That's Right, where Russ delivers this administration a little bit of good advice from a galaxy far, far away.....




Sadly, I'm not convinced the force is strong in the Obama White House...