OBAMA PROVES PANETTA’S POINT

A note to all those, right and left, who heralded the arrival of a new wartime era in the Obama presidency on Sept. 10 with the president’s about-face on bombing Syria: No chance, Lance. President Obama Thursday was back to his old self. A “pivot to the economy” was really a turn back to trolling Fox News and leading chants of “Yes we can!” and promising “bold” executive action to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country at a fundraiser for Hispanic Democrats. The war effort in Syria and Iraq looks increasingly like the regime-change mission Obama undertook in Libya: Arrived at under political pressure and departed from as quickly as possible – regardless of outcome.  Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta can’t be surprised. While his predecessor, Robert Gates, wondered whether politics outranked policies on national security at the Obama White House, Panetta is certain, writing in his new book: “[T]hose on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.”

[On “The Kelly File” last night, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked to answer Panetta’s charges. She did not. Watch here.]