There are basically two methods for dealing with the kinds of public relations crises that now beset the Obama administration. The president seems to by trying them both.
One is take-charge mode, in which a leader acknowledges that wrong has been done, says it's unacceptable, pledges to get to the bottom of it, make it public and set it right. This is where the president seemed to be going today regarding the IRS's targeting of those conservative groups.
The other method is the duck-and-cover method, in which the leader admits no wrongdoing, claims the whole matter is overblown and tries to blame somebody else. This is where the president has gone from the start on Benghazi and where he went again today.
We learned last week that the CIA's talking points on Benghazi went through 11 rewrites at the behest of the state department and White House, which basically converted them from true to false by stripping out all references to terrorism.
Nothing new here, said Mr. Obama today, adding the dubious claim that he himself had called it terrorism from the start.
Well, if that's true, then why did he permit his U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to recite those bogus talking points on five Sunday programs days later -- and to add the further bogus claim that it all stemmed from an Internet video. It may be late in the game for Mr. Obama to switch to take charge mode on Benghazi, but duck and cover sure isn't working either.
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