News quiz: President Obama and his communications team hope that Americans are: 1) Dumb; 2) Distracted; 3) Numb to government inefficiency; 4) All of above.

Answer: 4, all of the above.

Those are the most obvious explanations for why the White House thought it could get away with claiming that the departure of Veterans Affairs official Dr. Robert Petzel was a step toward accountability for its scandalous treatment of war veterans.