Let them hate, so long as they fear

The Romans used to say that about the barbarians.  Another way of saying it is that it's better to be respected than loved.  So what do we see about Obama?  Is he respected/feared?

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They think he's going to lose, and don't want a hostile GOP White House and Congress.  They could have just kept quiet, but didn't.  Osama bin Laden may be dead, but he understood the strong horse and the weak horse.

In an extraordinary move, officials appeared to lay the blame for confusion over what happened in the Libyan city of Benghazi on the shoulders of a key aide to President Barack Obama - Susan Rice, the administration's United Nations ambassador.

She told reporters five days after the attack that armed militants had "hijacked" a protest linked to an anti-Islamic video posted online in the United States. By that stage, local guards at the consulate building and other witnesses were all denying any sign of a protest before the attack, which began with grenades being hurled into the compound.

In the briefing, officials were asked about the previous explanation that the attack was linked to the video. "That was not our conclusion," one replied, calling it a question for "others" to answer.

Do the State Department bureaucrats respect/fear Barack Obama (or Hillary Clinton)?  The question answers itself.

The interesting question is how many more will break from the herd over the next three weeks?  Will it be a continual drip-drip-drip, one that accelerates as more and more see that there is no consequence for them to protect their position at the expense of the soon-to-be ex-POTUS?  Again, the questions answer themselves.  That you could even ask the question is to know the answer.

I'd do a long, typically Borepatchian post relating Obama to historical examples of the Peter Principle in action, but I did it three years ago.