FAIL: The White House expected "euphoria" over Bergdahl's release
As for Todd's point about the White House expecting "euphoria," there are only two possibilities. One: Despite a Pentagon investigation in 2010 into Bergdahl's disappearance, despite Michael Hastings's article two years ago in Rolling Stone, despite the fact that Bergdahl apparently left a note confirming his desertion, somehow everyone in the administration who had input into this prisoner swap missed the longstanding accusations against him. They thought they were bringing home a guy who was captured heroically in combat and have now been caught completely by surprise. I don't buy that, although I've had a few dozen conservative pals warn me on Twitter over the past 24 hours to never underestimate Hopenchange's ignorance and incompetence. Point taken, and if this were purely a policy matter, I might go along. It isn't. It's a political landmine too and O's usually careful to protect his own political capital. Someone surely looked into Bergdahl's disappearance and signed off on this knowing the allegations against him.
Which brings us to the other possibility. Namely, Obama expected "euphoria" over Bergdahl's release not because he didn't know about the desertion claims but because he assumed that most of the public would never find out. I think he expected the media to go face-first into the tank in ignoring the desertion angle in the interest of (a) protecting the White House and (b) playing up the gauzy "POW reunited with parents" human-interest stuff. And you know what? That was a reasonable expectation.
They probably thought that any desertion claims against Bergdahl would be confined to Fox and a few problematic segments on Jake Tapper's show, all of which could be ignored and ghettoized as some new right-wing bugaboo (sorry, Jake) that no one else need take seriously. Michael Tomasky was way out in front of that yesterday morning. But then all sorts of big-media outlets dug in - the Times, WaPo, NBC, ABC, and on and on - and that made the "politicization" defense too difficult (although the left, God love 'em, is still trying). I'm shocked by how eagerly the media went after it, frankly, although not as shocked as the White House. The X factor they didn't anticipate, I'll bet, is that soldiers like Cody Full would come forward and risk retaliation for putting his name to the "deserter" theory. It's one thing to call a Republican a hack, it's another to call a veteran who was there and who lost friends in the hunt for Bergdahl one. They've been left with no counter...Also read:
Why Team Obama Was Blindsided by the Bergdahl Backlash
The Weed Agency: Jim Geraghty's laugh-to-keep-from-crying send-up of the federal bureaucracy
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