Obama Takes Heat for Skipping Briefings

President Obama is taking heat today, after Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen accused him of routinely playing hooky from his daily intelligence briefing. According to a conservative think tank's analysis of Obama's public schedule, he attended briefings only about 43.8% of the time during his first 1,225 days in office, and that number has only fallen since, Thiessen, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, alleged yesterday. "George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting," he added.

A National Security Council spokesman told Thiessen that info was "not particularly interesting or useful," and later told Politico that Obama was "among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet." Press Secretary Jay Carney later called the report "hilarious," saying Obama was "comfortable" comparing his foreign policy record to the Bush administration's, CNN reports. But that didn't stop Dick Cheney from joining the assault. "If President Obama were participating in his intelligence briefings on a regular basis then perhaps he would understand why people are so offended at his efforts to take sole credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden," he told the Daily Caller. (More Barack Obama stories.)