Where the buck stops, some see a bystander

New York Times writer Peter Baker reports that President Obama’s lack of response to two critical White House issues has raised questions about his command in office.

Pointing to the botched rollout of Obama’s health care program and the secret spying on allied heads of state, opposing lawmakers and pundits have grown tired of his “I didn’t know” answers, Baker writes.

The Republican National Committee has described Obama as a “bystander president.” Some Democrats have acknowledged the pleas of ignorance and criticized administrative aides for not informing the president of key matters.

“It seems to me there’s a pattern here — with any bad news coming out of the administration, the excuse is the president just didn’t know about it,” U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill, told the Times. “There’s a point at which the I-didn’t-know excuse really violates the idea of the buck stops here. We want to have a feeling that the president ultimately takes responsibility. The American people want to know they have a president who’s in control and in charge.”

Historically, Baker notes the typical pattern in the Oval Office is to insulate the president from responsibility from bad news, in part, because government department heads also are to blame. As Harry S. Truman said decades ago: “The pressures and complexities of the presidency have grown to a state where they are almost too much for one man to endure.”

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