Active Listening aside, maybe he didn’t need to show he did not understand what the agency is/does. Tha cannot inspire a great deal of confidence.

Just ask the guy if he likes his work and moveon.org from there.

Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial…uh…
Walter: [Umm it's classified...Mr. President...] Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery..

lol

paint this obviously intelligent man

“Obvious”? Please cite examples. The ability to eloquently read words scrolling across a teleprompter is not a measure of brilliance. Hell, some of the dumbest actors in Hollywood are able to memorize lines and fool people into believing they are smart. What Barry does is not much different

bullseye on May 30, 2009 at 10:06 PM

Apology not required; I was worried that I had been less than clear.

BTW, I always got a kick out of how former President Bush could be both the giant idiot the left portrayed him as, and a cunning evil genius when he got over on them politically.

I sincerely hope you didn’t think I held the opinion that former President Bush was a moron; to the contrary, I always knew (and you just validated) that there was no such thing as a stupid fighter pilot.

massrighty on May 30, 2009 at 9:40 PM

Sorry about the way I worded that. I was trying to add to your original idea. Got clumsy with the wording…

bullseye on May 30, 2009 at 9:22 PM

I sincerely hope you didn’t think I held the opinion that former President Bush was a moron; to the contrary, I always knew (and you just validated) that there was no such thing as a stupid fighter pilot.

Natan Scharansky (who used to be Anatoliy, but has changed his name since emigrating to Israel) found Bush to be intelligent and insightful during the time he spent with him on a visit to the white house. Good enough for me.

And, after 8 years of “W is a moron” from a wide variety of commentators, he’s fair game, and it’s open season, as far as critiquing his intellignce goes.

Plus, the double standard that’s operating here is getting tiresome; had any conservative done this, it would have been late night fodder for a week, and worth at least two lame skits on SNL.

massrighty on May 30, 2009 at 8:52 PM

That “W is a moron” thing really fries my butt. Let me say that I am not 100% aligned with W (immigration, tax and spend etc)

However, the “Moron” thing is complete garbage. I worked with Naval Aviators for 20 years. Working in that position I met the good, the bad and the ugly. We had some complete idiots in the civil service end as well as some really dedicated people.

Back to W. I met a lot of stupid people, and I met a lot of fighter pilots. HOWEVER, I NEVER met a stupid fighter pilot. There are names for stupid fighter pilots: The deceased, dead, kaput, the corpse, smoking hole in the ground etc.

W strapped an F-102 on his ass and did it repeatedly in all kinds of weather. When they first tested the 102, the engineers all looked at each other and said “uh oh, we f-d this design up”. They had to create a new aeronautical theory to get the thing stable.

Also, there is a possibility that he might have flown with the Genie (There is speculation that it may have flown with the 102 but no real confirmation). Anyway, the Genie as a 1kt unguided nuke that travelled about 5 miles with a 5 second fuse or so (I may be a bit off on the specs but the freaking thing didn’t have a fuse that was much longer than that of a grenade) The stateside attrition of 102 pilots was damn near that of combat infantry over in vietnam.

So, I would challenge anyone who calls bush a moron like Michael Moore to strap his butt, if he can get it to fit, and fly a combat mission in a 102 (Yeah I know there aren’t any flying but I can fantasize)… Let’s see if he could survive the ‘idiot’s loop’ when launching a Genie. Hell, most of these idiots wouldn’t be able to run up the engine without a major disaster. A compressor stall on takeoff usually resulted in the plane rolling inverted and grinding the pilot into the runway.

Compare and contrast that with the life of Barak hussein Obama (bower to saudi kings).. What has the community organizer ever done as remotely demanding as flying a fighter aircraft??

commenters here who will inevitably try to paint this obviously intelligent man as ignorant and dumb. Kooks.

underceij on May 29, 2009 at 8:40 PM

I know this was last nights comment, but seriously: Show me a logical proof that President Obama is an “obviously intelligent” man. How does one demonstrate “obvious” intelligence? I’d say, we have a right to do two things;
1. Expose his gaffes
2. Draw our own conclusions, as to his intelligence.

So far, we’ve been denied access to any of his grades/test scores/published scholarly writings. These might give us some insights into his level of intelligence, but they are all sealed, at his request.

And, after 8 years of “W is a moron” from a wide variety of commentators, he’s fair game, and it’s open season, as far as critiquing his intellignce goes.

Plus, the double standard that’s operating here is getting tiresome; had any conservative done this, it would have been late night fodder for a week, and worth at least two lame skits on SNL.

Again, he says something dumb, and gets a pass.

The agency that ‘takes credit’for the product of NGIA is probably one that Obama does know of like the DIA.

ElRonaldo on May 30, 2009 at 4:43 PM

Oh boy. And after NIMA fought so hard to shed that fourth letter and become NGA, people still add the fourth letter anyway.

Three-letter agencies are supposed to be at the top of the heap; their names (CIA, DIA, FBI, NGA,…) instantly recognizable to everyone. Poor, poor, NGA, which happens to produce the majority of the image content in Obama’s morning read, and he doesn’t even remember them.

And probably another 30 agencies that can task the satellites to gather ‘product’.

Ever hear of one federal agency taking credit for the product of another federal agency? It’s very common. And agencies get changed and retasked and political infights result in tasking changing every day.

The agency that ‘takes credit’for the product of NGIA is probably one that Obama does know of like the DIA.

Leave Obama alone on this one – I’ll bet on some days, if the light is just right, his socks don’t quite match either. Let’s save our criticism for issues that matter or we lose our own credibility.

Gates “NO NO NO NO NO DONT PUSH THAT !”

William Amos on May 29, 2009 at 8:36 PM

Obama: “Whatever you say, William.”

4. What does NBC mean on the battlefield?

It means NBC news should report our casualties when a republican is in office, and should report enemy casualties when democrats are in office.

You mean Couric and Charlie Gibson didn’t ask The One questions like that? Certainly would have been reasonable given the relevance of The Bush Doctrine to a Governor running for Vice President.

I honestly believe that Governor Palin would run right by The One (and McLame) if she had time to study. If she really fires out of a copter she has a lot in common with modern US warriors already.

The One would pack a few hundred burgers, a translation book of “I’m Sorry” in sixty languages and a parachute. In a slick.

Anyway, the challenge to us is to get candidates like her elected after The One is done so they can struggle with our wrecked nation.

Let’s face facts: Obama has only been in office since January 20. There are an enormous amount of Federal agencies, not too mention departments of agencies. It’s kinda hard to know them all.

Nice try. Remember, before becoming President, he held “The Office of President-Elect” (whatever the hell that is. BTW, who holds that office now?) So, he’d been getting security briefings since the day after he won. It’s not like Jan 20th was his first day of employee orientation.

Well, it goes on how she was skipping the briefings and role playings because that was for neanderthal warmongering men.

Then some jihadists detonate what was supposed to be a multistage weapon in Denver that fizzled to 15k. Ms Liberal Proffessor falls apart at the seams and almost kicks off WWIII.

The scary thing is old Clancy has been a bit of a witch in his ability to predict future events. I wonder how much time the junior senator/community thug organizer is spending in learning what he needs to do to respond in a crisis

Hell folks, if I can’t sleep well at night I might as well pass this along…

Obama has had it explained to him before, as intensive briefings on his national intelligence apparatus are part of the transition process for the president.

It’s understandable that CEO America can’t remember every single executive agency out there. However, unless Panetta is a very unusual DCI, Obama has been briefed on things NGA has analyzed for him, and has almost certainly been shown an image or two with the NGA emblem appearing on them. (Presidents are not, of course, expected to have analytical opinions on such displays, but they are prepared and used for their explanatory value, and to visually demonstrate the level of detail and certainty analysts have.)

It’s not like there are 2 billion jihadist nutcases who are sworn to killing, enslaving or converting us infidels.

Besides, why worry about the military and intel agencies when he will soon have a National Yoot Corp ‘equal in size and power to the Military’???

I would love to see a reporter spring a pop quiz on him about the military. Not the esoteric stuff but stuff like

1. How many people make up a division
2. What are the sizes of nuclear arms in our inventory
3. What are the immediate effects of a 10k groundburst in a city
4. What does NBC mean on the battlefield?
5. Please Define EMP
6. Can you explain the various defcon stages and when we have been at the highest 2 levels in the past
7. How many divisions approximately does the US have?
8. Please define the term REMF and give an example
9. Please define 2 uses of Depleted Uranium, one offensive and one defensive
10. What is meant by a binary munition??

I’d be willing to bet that the average HA reader would be able to do 2 to 3 times better on a quiz like that than the guy who has been in office 100 days flapping his jugears

And to stay on topic, our president is an idiot.