RUSH: Well, well, well, look at this. Look at this. Apparently Obama has heard all of the criticism from his friends, which we chronicled here in the first hour, all of these Council on Foreign Relations types. These current, former diplomats, all of them leftists, openly writing of Obama’s incompetence, suggesting that he needs to broom his entire foreign policy national security team and there’s nobody in there qualified, this is an embarrassment, and they’re worried about the security of the country. This is Leslie Gelb and this guy named Jim Patterson, and there are gonna be more piling on.

They’re literally writing that they believe Obama is so in over his head, he doesn’t have the slightest clue about American foreign policy. I still don’t think these people are ever gonna get it. And if they do, they’re never gonna admit it. He’s not incompetent. That’s the thing. He is not in. This guy may be, in fact, one of the most skilled con men that’s ever come down the pike, one of the most accomplished, astute con men ever.

The idea that Obama’s incompetent? You have to purposely make the decisions he’s making. It’s not that you don’t know the right thing to do. These are conscious decisions. It was a conscious decision to snub that event in France. It’s a conscious decision to legalize, formalize relationships with countries that have been traditionally enemies of this country, such as Cuba, who knows who else. It isn’t incompetence.

I don’t know how long it’s gonna take his buddies on the left to get there, but right now they’re stuck on the idea, “My God, we really fell for this guy.” They thought he spoke well, he was sophisticated, he was articulate, but man, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He needs to fire everybody. He needs to replace Valerie Jarrett, everybody in his apparatus, security and foreign policy, just needs to broom ’em. And these people suggesting this are not insignificant.

Now, there could be some politics going on. I mean, Leslie Gelb, politically, would Leslie Gelb be inclined to support Hillary? Well, he’d be inclined to support whoever the Democrat nominee is. Okay, so if it’s her, yeah, he’ll supoort. But at this stage would Gelb think that it would be helpful to start ripping into Obama as a neophyte and an incompetent as a means of shielding Hillary from any association with this, and therefore any tarnish, as her presidential campaign begins. And that’s a possibility.

But in reading what these guys are writing, I don’t doubt them. I think they’re genuinely worried. I think they’re genuinely scared. And I think they really do think we’ve got a knucklehead in charge that doesn’t know what to do and doesn’t take it all seriously. And I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think it’s all happening by design. It’s all happening on purpose. I don’t see how it cannot be.

But, anyway, this next sound bite’s Josh Earnest this afternoon at the White House press briefing. You’ve gotta hear this. CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta said to Josh Earnest, the press secretary, “The president hasn’t really spoken out publicly very much about what happened in Paris since last Friday. If I’m not mistaken, he has not really said much of anything since last Friday. And of course we all know, Josh, he didn’t go there, and he didn’t participate in the unity rally. Now, Josh, should we expect to hear Obama talk about this any further? Has he spoken out about it enough or is it over with now?”

EARNEST: The president has certainly — you know, as we saw over the course of last week when France was in the midst of responding to this crisis, you saw that the president telephoned president Hollande. The president spoke publicly on a couple of occasions. The president also, I think, sent a pretty loud and clear message to the people of France when he traveled to the French embassy in northwestern DC —

RUSH: You gotta be kidding.

EARNEST: — last Thursday and appeared at the embassy and wrote a note in a book there expressing condolences, but also —

RUSH: Oh, my God. Oh, my God, I don’t believe it.

EARNEST: — the support of the American people to the people of France.

RUSH: Hey, look, Obama went above and beyond, Mr. Acosta, don’t you know what he did? Obama spoke publicly. He telephoned president Hollande. He sent a loud and clear message to the people of France when he went to the French embassy in Washington. Man, this is embarrassing. He sent a really tough message to the people of France when he ventured to their embassy. I’ve been to their embassy. I have smoked cigars in the French embassy and it is gorgeous. It’s not quite the palace of Versailles, but there is obvious influence.

It is absolutely gorgeous. Yeah, it was after a charity dinner that I attended back in the early nineties. There was nothing greater than smoking cigars and having wine in the French embassy. So for Obama to go to the this place is sending a strong message to the people of France? This is embarrassing. He called Hollande, he went over to the French embassy in northwestern DC, and then he wrote a note in a book there expressing condolences.

Folks, this is just laughable. (laughing) So they’re on the ropes. And this guy from CNN, “What’s he gonna do? My God, he hasn’t talked about it.” “Hey, let me tell you, Obama’s done more than most, he cares. He went to the French embassy and he wrote a note to the French people. He called Hollande. He spoke about it. What more do you want, Acosta?” (laughing) That’s almost in the realm of “my dog ate the homework.” (laughing) That is childish. Can you believe the narcissism here? “Hey, I don’t have to go there and be part of the rally. I can go to the embassy and leave a note for the French people and do more and mean more than actually taking time to go to Paris.”