Tuesday morning, a peculiar announcement trickled out of the White House press office: President Barack Obama would be holding a moment of silence for the victims of the Boston bombings. At the White House. By himself. No press or other intruders allowed.
Except the White House photographer.
That Obama assumed Americans would want an iconic photo of him privately mourning the victims of the bombings was emblematic of a kind of hubris that has enveloped the president and his White House as the president commences his second term.
(PHOTOS: 18 defining Obama moments)
Hubris in a leader is an obnoxious thing, leading to imperiousness in governing. And it's also a dangerous thing for a second-term president, often spelling trouble.
Unfortunately, this president's acts of high handedness and self-absorption have been accumulating in the past several months at a blistering pace.
Even as the nation's workers wilted under a struggling economy and high unemployment, Obama decided to take two round excursions to Hawaii at taxpayer expense over the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Just six weeks later, he jetted down to Florida for a luxury four-day golf vacation where he played with Tiger Woods. Meanwhile Michelle Obama also took another vacation, skiing in Colorado.
(PHOTOS: Obama's Hawaii vacation)
Even as the sequester began to force those who work for him in the federal government to take furloughs and government services were scaled back – including, famously, the White House tours – Obama stepped up his golf, roaring out of the White House in his motorcade three Saturdays in a row for the 50-minute round trip drive to the Joint Base Andrews course.
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