Media Questioning Where Presidential Leadership Has Been On Sequester

“The President’s in charge, and he’s got to figure out a way to stop the sequester and I think the symbolism of the last couple weeks hasn’t been great. He’s not really out there leading a new path towards figuring out how to avoid something that he says is a bad idea and promised as a candidate wouldn’t happen.” (Mark Halperin, Morning Joe, MSNBC, February 19, 2013)

“And so we now have the President going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement, I can’t do what I need to do to protect the country. That’s a kind of madness that I haven’t seen in a long time.” (Bob Woodward, Morning Joe, MSNBC, February 27, 2013)

“The discretionary budget itself is about tapped out, squeezed by the growth of entitlement spending. That’s what makes the minimal presidential leadership on entitlement reform so baffling.” (Sequester offers President Obama a time to lead, Washington Post, Editorial Board, February 25, 2013)

“The president seems prepared to let the public suffer almost as much as possible, as long as he can blame somebody else. This is not what we expect of presidents. Presidents in the end are supposed to be the people who put their big boy pants and prepare to shoulder responsibility. And if they’re criticized for using that responsibility or authority so be it, but that’s what you expect of President’s. This President seems more inclined to let the chips fall where they may and hit as hard as they might, as long as he thinks he can blame somebody else. It’s very unusual for a president.” (Brit Hume, The O’Reilly Factor, March 4, 2013)