U.S. President Barack Obama has defended his country's surveillance of phone records.
Analysis: Obama's Agenda Scorched In Firestorm -- USA Today
WASHINGTON — President Obama, meet the second-term curse.
Revelations that the U.S. government has been collecting a massive database of telephone usage by millions of Americans — citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing — created a firestorm Thursday that would be damaging for any administration. But it is is especially problematic for Obama because it stokes controversies he already was struggling to contain and reinforces criticism that has dogged him from the start.
Republicans have long depicted Obama as an advocate of a big, dangerous and overreaching government, back to the federal bailout of the auto industry he undertook during the financial crisis that greeted his first inauguration. That has been their fundamental philosophical objection to his signature Affordable Care Act, now just months away from implementation of its major provisions.
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My Comment: The growing Sunni-Shiite conflict in the Middle East. Iran's nuclear program. Chinese expansionism. The U.S. fiscal, debt, and economic crisis. The domestic agenda. These .... and other issues .... have now been eclipsed by the NSA's surveillance programs on American citizens. Throw in the other scandals (Benghazi, AP/FOX reporters being targeted, IRS) .... the focus can no longer be on your agenda .... it has to be on damage control. In short .... President Obama's agenda will probably be put on the back-burner for the rest of the year, and with elections slated for next year his agenda will probably be pushed back until after next year's Congressional elections.