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If Barack Obama can’t be trusted to safeguard information about his own Secret Service agents, can he be trusted with vital national security secrets?
I ask the question above after observing the president-elect engaging in post-news conference “happy talk” (i.e., non-political banter) with members of the Washington press corps this morning.
After bringing up the subject of the BCS National Championship Game won by Florida Thursday night, the soon-to-be-44th president mentioned that the leader of his Secret Service detail had shown keen interest in the outcome of the game — #2 Florida beat #1 Oklahoma, 24-14 — because his son was a member of one of the teams involved in the season-ending college football showcase in Miami.*
Do you think that any member of of a Secret Service detail wants information about his family and personal life shared with the public via the national and international news media? I seriously doubt it for two reasons.
By divulging such personal information about his Secret Service agent, Obama may have:
1. Compromised that agent’s ability to perform his duties as a protector of the president; and
2. Compromised the security that agent’s family members were able to enjoy while living in the relative anonymity that existed in their lives prior to Obama’s disclosure of information about them.
I won’t go into detail about how a person with less-than-honorable intentions might attempt to capitalize on Obama’s reckless statements, but I can tell you that it took only a few mouse clicks for this blogger to pare the list of players who might be related to that Secret Service agent down to a manageable few.
Why am I concerned? As a former Air Force officer who was both entrusted with national security secrets and helped safeguard the same, I can only hope that the president-elect will learn from this grave misstep and not compromise or endanger anyone else as a result of such a loose-lipped approach to leadership.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Always On Watch // Jan 9, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Ugh.
What a terrible “gaffe”!
2 william lowery // Jan 9, 2009 at 5:53 pm
After 20 years military. last half classified, I still feel obligated to keep my pledge of secrecy.
What right does this BOZO have to be a blabber mouth. It appears he is all talk and NO walk.
May GOD bless our nation, we need it more now than ever
WB
3 hotoffthepress2 // Jan 9, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Great points, William Lowery, AOW.
4 Al // Jan 11, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Great point! As personable as the President-elect is, he still needs to know when and where to exhibit the warm politician on the campaign trail, and the distinct difference between demonstrating presidential behavior in all matters, especially anything to do with matters relative to safety and security.
5 hotoffthepress2 // Jan 11, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Al,
Thanks. I found only one “major” media outlet — The Hillhad reported much about Obama’s post-BCS comments. None, however, noticed Obama’s security gaffe.
6 joe from new hampshire // Jan 12, 2009 at 3:26 am
It is a very sad state of affairs when the security charged with protecting the President of the United States had to pass security background checks that NObama himself would NEVER have passed! This was NOT a gaffe. This was A BLATANTLY STUPID thing to do.
7 Government Watch: Obama File #14 « Lighthouse Patriot Journal // Jan 17, 2009 at 9:14 am
[...] journalists and syndicated columnists stated that according to an ex-FBI agent – he would have never passed a background check for a security clearance, and this was made public BEFORE the election. Yet, we can see that the [...]
8 Renegade // Jan 17, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Get a life! Don’t you have anything better to worry about?
9 hotoffthepress2 // Jan 17, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Now, let’s see, where does national security rank among things to worry about? Whaddya know, it’s WAY up there! BTW, I have a life and, unlike you, it takes place outside my mother’s basement.
10 alex // Feb 1, 2009 at 4:21 pm
He just did it again during the Superbowl Pre-game Show on NBC in an live interview with Matt Lauer.
I wonder what’s going on and why my favorite president doesn’t know the possible implications of this – or maybe I don’t know anything and I’m missing something :-/ ?
11 hotoffthepress2 // Feb 1, 2009 at 4:41 pm
alex — I just turned on the television. What did he say exactly?
12 Curtis Davis // Feb 2, 2009 at 10:57 am
Obama interviewed by Matt Lauer once again mentioned the fact that a secrete service agents son was a member of UFlorida football team.
He has comprimsed the safety of this family
13 Aguy // Feb 2, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I was curious to see the views about this comment, I found it so stupid, does the word SECRET tell you something in “secret service agent”???
It was not fun, and I think he realized about his mistake, but it was too late, the time to be charismatic is over, yeah you can be fun and all but, you don’t HAVE to. You are the president not a candidate anymore. I think he will learn that, and do hope this comment doesn’t bring trouble to the family.
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