Sniffs the Weekly Standard:
How Do You Spell Scapegoat? H-A-G-E-L.
Chuck Hagel, apparently fired as Secretary of Defense, was exactly who and what Obama wanted, a weak Defense Secretary willing to carry out the President’s plan of demilitarizing of the U.S. and reducing U.S. power abroad. But that plan has led to rapidly deteriorating stability around the globe, and with ISIS appearing to be winning while the U.S. has restricted itself to bomb runs and “advisors,” Obama had a choice. He could, as he has consistently done for six years, refuse to acknowledge that his policies were misfiring and that his team was failing, thus giving the public no reason to believe that he knew, or perhaps even cared, that his ideology didn’t translate into desirable real world results. He could continue blaming others—Republicans, bad luck, Bush—for failures, and keep his loyalists in their jobs no matter how incompetent they appeared. In the alternative, he could signal that he was not satisfied with the status quo, and let heads roll—you know, like real leaders do.
I am shocked that he finally chose the second option. Could this be the long-awaited uptick in Obama’s relentlessly flat leadership learning curve? There is reason for hope. True, Hagel was the one Republican in the Cabinet, so he was an easy sacrifice, and it is also true that he should never have been appointed in the first place. Sure, he’s a scapegoat, but scapegoats signal that there is accountability: this is a positive development in every way. In government and in every important job, it doesn’t matter why you don’t succeed. Your job is to succeed, and if you don’t, you are responsible. If Obama is willing to hold Chuck Hagel to that standard, maybe he’ll realize that this is the standard he must be judged by as well.
Ethics Alarms 
Gee, Obama finally realized that anti-war Republicans picked to provide a fig leaf for the administration might not be good at fighting wars? That is maybe a one-degree uptick in that flat curve.
An uptick is an uptick. Now there’s…MOMENTUM!
You owe me a keyboard.
P.S. I think it smacks more of throwing someone under the bus for the ISIS debacle.
Presidents aren’t prime ministers, don’t resign, and remember who the VP is. Throwing a Cabinet member under the bus is what you do. Can’t criticize the President for that. And Hagel belongs under a bus.
Can’t argue with that, BUT, Obama shouldn’t be surprised. This is smacking more and more of the end of Jimmuh Cahtuh’s administration, when he realized the rest of the country was turning right, tried to correct, and fell flat on his face.
The chief subversive thus paves the way for further subversion.
(NEW STANDARD SIGN-OFF FOR MY COMMENTS IN THIS BLOG, FOR NOW AND THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE):
This comment is 100% sarcasm-free.
Poor Chuck. What were the odds that if Obama ever started acting like a normal politician ( Even more amazing who would ever have imagined that acting like a normal politician would be a positive move?) he’d take Chuck down first. I’ll bet the other ciphers in the O administration are shaking in their booties.
I always found it strange that President Obama blamed President Bush for everything, then more or less adopted Bush’s plan of downsizing the military.
You guys are aware that Hagel was “allowed to resign” because he publicly disagreed with BHO’s stance on ISIS, right?
The moment of truth will occur when Obama forwards Hagel’s replacement. Some Robert MacNamara type, I’d imagine.